Broken Mirror
by Lady-Pyrien
Summary: Losing consciousness at the end of the fight, Chell wakes up to a place so familiar, yet completely alien. Now, with Wheatley by her side, she must plan another escape, this time, hoping to earn her freedom. Chelley, Spacosity, angrality. partial AU
1. Waking Up

Okay, let me start by saying, I absolutely LOVE portal 2. I love the story and all of the characters. I have played it so many times and still have an Itch to play more! So, I started looking up fan fiction for it. I usually write fics for anime so this is a new thing for me. I will try hard not to disappoint any readers who stumble upon this.

Also, I have four chapters of this already written, so updating regularly for awhile should be no problem, however I still keep going through these and editing and changing things for the story's plot. (this should explain if I've missed something small and it doesn't quite make sense. Just let me know if you find an inconsistency please)

This is also the first story I've actually read over and made sure I didn't mess up point of view(which I tend to do on accident -_-)

Tl;dr :: this is my first portal fic, I love the game, tell me of any mess ups ^_^

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><p>With Moon gel below her, Portal Gun in hand, and GLaDOS in the midst of handing her the final core, things were beginning to look up. Chell leapt through the orange hole she created and flew out of the blue one. The final core was just out of reach. Her eyes darted to the left and right, quickly scoping out what she needed to do. The Aperture Laboratories test subject quickly shot the portal to the floor below the last core and another at the end of the accidentally spilled propulsion gel.<p>

Without even thinking, as it had become second nature to the girl, she leapt down onto the gel and raced into the open orange portal. Chell felt the lose strands of hair whip around lightly as she flew up higher and higher toward the glowing pink light. The energy of her portal device latched onto the little core and she dropped back down. Frowning, she now had to get the little core to the monster that GLaDOS' body had created.

Chell's eyes darted to the massive collection of wires and metal, and resting at the tip, disoriented from the last pelting of bombs, was her former friend, Wheatley. She felt several emotions just thinking about finally taking him down. One was joy. In all honesty, thanks to the writings on the wall, she had totally expected betrayal from the original supercomputer who controlled that body. But Wheatley's betrayal was completely unexpected. It truly hurt when he laughed at her suffering and took all the credit…and long after, tried to kill her.

Then again, it was those few things GLaDOS mentioned before about Wheatley and the system itself that left Chell not really wanting to hurt him. It was, after all, the "Itch" causing most of his insanity, plus the major surge of power he felt when he was first plugged into the 'body'. He seemed so happy to finally feel that power that he let it get to him. So in a sense, could Chell really blame the core?

"You are about to get me killed." The robotic voice brought her out of the small trance she seemed to saunter off into.

"We will both die because of your negligence. This is a bad plan. You will fail. He will most likely kill you. Violently." Chell growled and started running towards the repulsion gel lying on the floor, hoping to quickly get this little metal ball onto Wheatley.

"The Fact Sphere is NOT defective. Its facts a wholly accurate, and VERY interesting." Chell leapt into the air and slammed the sphere onto the spot open for it, glad it finally stopped talking about itself and how she would die.

Soon she was forced to race towards the grated room holding the 'stalemate' button. GLaDOS was screaming for her to push it, but Wheatley was yelling not to. She felt slightly guilty, but she had no choice. She glanced it the room, which Wheatley had sealed off. Anger rose as well as desperation. The timer was slowly running down and she had two A.I. systems yelling at her. Luckily, the broken roof of the button room was made of Moon walls and big enough for the blue portal she shot. She aimed her gun and shot, before diving into the new orange portal below Wheatley.

'Almost!' she thought landing in the room. Her hand reached out to hit the button…The first thing she noticed was the searing heat that surrounded her, the next was her face lying on the cold, wet floor. Chell groaned lightly to herself and pushed up, only to hear Wheatley, "What? Are you still alive? Great. I'm still in charge and I have no bloody idea how to fix this place!"

The test subject gone haywire glared and gripped the portal device and aimed up, right at the huge glowing moon above the collapsing ceiling. She only had one shot before her former friend would kill her. Her finger pressed down and the blue portal was shot.

Suddenly the room began to fly into the orange portal. She tried to grab at the floor but nothing was staying still. Soon she would be thrown into the cold unforgiving space and nothing would help her. Chell made one last desperate attempt to grab something.

Her vision blurred and she faded into blackness.

GLaDOS felt herself suddenly come into power again. It was good to feel the entire facility pulsing through her wires again. Her optic quickly took notice of what was going on and she made a pass to stop it. Chell was quickly sliding towards the hole in the floor where Wheatley was dangling out of. From where her head lie, she noted that the portal had to be moved in order to stop the massive vacuum. She dropped three claws from the battered ceiling ports. One shot out to grab Chell, another the portal device and the third was to knock Wheatley from the system.

She succeeded with her endeavors, but something went wrong. She shut down the portals, closing them up, but a malfunction in her claw caused them to freeze up. With this the device fell and smashed against the ground. Blue and orange lights swirled together just as Chell's motionless body fell on top.

Almost as soon as it had been created it was gone. The shattered was lying on the scorched floor. GLaDOS scanned the area and put together the heavily daunting fact that Chell was nowhere to be seen.

She felt an odd sensation pulsing through her. "Ah, so that's where you are." she located the file. The supercomputer focused and a voice filled the room.

"Caroline Deleted." She no longer felt the odd sensation for the odd disappearance of that pest. There were other things that needed tending to. She shot directions to the control panel to override the system.

The supercomputer regained control of the claws and picked up what was left of the small machine, knowing it was beyond repair and needed incineration.

She let out a sigh and decided it was for the best that the test subject was gone, for she could not actually see the girl inside any rooms. Perhaps she had just been incinerated by the explosion the portal device caused.

She threw the device into the Emergency Incinerator Room, the one built for defective aperture devices, that couldn't be destroyed in the regular one.

Anyway, there was better things GLaDOS could be doing with her time, like sending BLUE and ORANGE into some testing…

When Chell opened her eyes, she realized she most definitely was NOT floating in space, but rather, she was in a white room. Bright lights above her and white walls around her. She sat up and immediately regretted doing so. Her head was flooded with pain. She leaned back against the pillow and looked around. A small machine hooked up next to her (and onto her) revealed she was inside Aperture Laboratories. She groaned, having hoped GLaDOS would keep to her word and let her go.

The door suddenly began to open and Chell leapt out of the bed, Pain be damned, and toppled to the floor. A tall woman with red hair walked in and smiled, "Hi, I'm Penny Body, I know, weird name and all, but you can call me Penny," she walked over. The woman was wearing a white lab coat, but her name tag said 'assistant', meaning she wasn't a real lab tech.

Never mind that, Chell hadn't actually seen another human alive in a very long time. She wondered if this girl had been dragged down into the labs by GLaDOS. 'Horrible…' Chell thought as the girl helped her to sit back up on the bed.

"I just need to run a few tests and I'll be out of your hair…" The Aperture portal tester grimaced at the word 'tests'. GLaDOS would probably put her through the most rigorous test known to science in a matter of minutes once she was able to stand again.

"Can I have your name, please?" Penny looked up with golden, almost orange, eyes. Chell frowned. That super computer knew very well what her name was, even if she chose not to use it. The A.I. knew everything about her. Or at least it seemed that way.

Chell sighed and pointed to her throat, trying to commune she couldn't speak. Now, it wasn't that Chell couldn't speak, she just preferred not to because actions spoke louder than words to her…that…and she hadn't used her voice in so long, the one time she tried she ended up with a very irritated throat. It hurt and itched for days…maybe…the girl had no idea how long she had actually been doing tests.

"Oh, I see…mute?" she flipped her clipboard onto a blank paper, "Here, I'll ask a few questions and you just write the answers!" the girl seemed very peppy, as if happiness was all she had ever known. She was also very outgoing, not even bothered by the battered, bloody, bruised and disheveled Aperture Test Subject before her.

"Okay! Name?" Chell wrote it down quickly. "Age?" This one actually stumped the girl. She didn't even know how long she had been in stasis before she was woken up, not to mention how long she had been in them again. She clearly remembered being a small girl when becoming trapped in the labs, but that would be ridiculous to the 'assistant'.

So Chell guessed and wrote '25', hoping she looked the part. "Good, and I guess that's it for now…I can't really think of what else they wanted…" she laughed. Just then the door opened to reveal a shorter man, about the same age and Penny. His hair was dyed a ridiculous shade of blue.

"You're being called up to the-" he stopped, when he spotted Chell sitting on the bed. A frown crossed his face and he closed the door.

"Don't mind him," Penny shook her head, "he's not very friendly to people he doesn't know. He's kinda shy and reserved…I think I'm one of his only friends…" She shook her thoughts away , "Anyways, my boss wanted to see you as soon as you woke up, so I guess you'll be coming with me!"

The walk through the halls was an odd one. The area seemed do familiar to Chell, yet she felt as if she were really in space on some other planet. There weren't any turrets hiding in the grates, nor was the facility dirty of broken in any way. Plants were actually being used as decoration, and not destructive 'coming through the floor' organisms.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Penny turned to Chell, "This is Avery, Avery Atlas…he prefers being called by his last name, though. And no that's not his real hair color, he just loves to be different!" She ruffed her friend's hair, who quickly turned and tried to kick the taller girl.

Chell smiled softly, seeing how they were really close. She frowned again, entering a small lobby. Something she had only seen in Old Aperture not long ago. Back when that man, Cave Johnson or other… over the intercom ran the place with his tests that were almost more insane that anything his supercomputer creation would ever come up with.

There were people everywhere tapping away on computers and prepping calls going to the higher ups.

"Just a little further." Penny explained to Chell as they walked down the halls. It was an enormously odd feeling that came over the ragged and worn girl, when she looked through the glass windows and spotted two tests going on. They were of course involving the two types of gels that she, herself, had become quite familiar with. It was also odd to see so many people out there. A few were in lab coats taking down notes, yet others were the ones being tested on. Chell couldn't help but frown when she saw that the walls were padded where the orange gel was being tested. What felt like years of being thrown into walls by accidentally sliding too fast was getting the best of her.

"I don't care Pendleton! One more screw up like this and I'll see you happily to the incinerator room." A shiver ran down Chell's spine. How long had she been out? If humans were all over the place, and _she_ still ran the place…

Penny bit her lip and stopped just as a man with light auburn hair, messy and in disarray, walked from the office quickly. His eyes turned and landed on Chell and a wide grin grew on his face. He wore a lab coat, so obviously he was in charge of something, but there was something completely familiar about him as well.

Chell knew for a fact she had never met him, but there was something about those bright blue eyes of his. It wasn't until he opened his mouth to speak that it dawned on her.

"'Ello, love, you must be the girl they found in the labs, huh. Well, I can't say that you look too good, I mean you look great considering the explosion an' all, but yeah, uh…My name's Wheatley Pendleton, so, uh, yeah, It was fantastic meeting you! But she'll kill me if I don' get back to work." he pushed the pair of glasses up his nose and walked down the halls waving politely as he did.

Chell's mind was sent reeling. One minute she's sending a small metal orb into space for taking over Aperture, the next she's meeting some guy with the same voice and name as that orb. Was she dreaming? Was she permanently locked in stasis? Had she actually died in the cold recesses of space?

It wasn't until Penny tapped her shoulder, that she realized they were supposed to be going somewhere. Chell swallowed hard as she walked down through the door. It led into a room she knew well, but the last time she saw it, it was being ripped apart by a space vacuum.

Inside it now, instead of the dreaded supercomputer she had fought against and with, there was a series of computers and monitors, showing the entire facility, including all the testing tracks and breaks rooms.

In the corner were a set of white elongated machines. Chell knew them. She had fought them and turned them off and had even replaced them at one point with faulty ones.

Two women stood beside each other guarding a vault and set of buttons and things. They were each clad in short white dresses, white pants and white belts with a red orb instead of a buckle. The two had black boots on and white headbands with little antenna sticking out of the little headphone that covered their left ears. They reminded her heavily of the little turrets that she had fought and shut down countless times. She wondered if there was a way to possibly defeat these "turrets". But even if there was a reason to get passed these…guards…she didn't even have a portal device.

Speaking of, what ever had happened to it? It's not as if she saw any of the test subjects using one. Had GLaDOS stored it away, hoping no one would use it against her?

Chell was interrupted from her thoughts, when an older woman walked across the room to her. She had black hair, cut short and precise around her face. Her face was worn with age, but it wasn't her face that worried Chell. It was the yellow eyes that stood out against that face that caught her attention.

'So much like…hers…' the girl thought to herself.

"She's not much to look at…kind of on the heavy side…more or less beaten up." the woman spoke, sending shivers down Chell's spine. It was even her voice. "How did you end up in my lab?" 'Her lab? I mean…where's GLaDOS…I thought I heard her, but…' she looked at the woman with the same, yet not as robotic, voice as her arch enemy.

Chell frowned, knowing she wouldn't speak. "Oh, uh…ma'am," she girl beside Chell piped up, "She's mute…" she instantly received a hard glance form the woman who reminded Chell of the A.I.

Yellow eyes met the blue-grey ones, "Get her some paper. I want to know what Black Mesa is up to…"

Penny frowned, doing as the woman said easily, "But she is wearing Aperture Laboratory's testing clothes…"

The woman looked Chell over again. The girl looked down at the blood stained, scorched, gel covered clothes. Even the long-fall boots were covered in a thin layer of black dust.

"That is interesting, tell me girl, I know ALL of my test subjects…yet I know nothing of you…where are you from? Who are you? WHY are you HERE?"

Chell winced lightly from the harshness in the woman's voice, but she wrote on the paper anyways.

'Where am I? How long was I out? Where is _She_?' Chell handed her the paper and pressed her lips into a tight line.

"You're in my labs, of course, Aperture Science Laboratories. You were only out a few hours, when you had the audacity to come exploding my lab. Shame, too, one of my tests was interrupted and possibly put off for a lot longer, thanks to you." she pointed to a computer system that had been apparently damaged, as well as some device she had never seen before, lying in pieces on a table. Chell frowned, knowing she had not caused that.

"And who, pray tell, is '_She'_?" This woman certainly reminded Chell of her.

The girl took the paper back and quickly scribbled, 'GLaDOS.' the woman laughed a eerily family laugh, "I'm Dr. Glados, if that's what you mean. I certainly never would write my name like that…How do you know me?"

Chell felt even more confusion over the entire situation. Not only was there more humans than turrets of cores floating around, she had seen a human who reminded her of her former friend and escape partner and another who claimed to be the greatest super computer to ever live, so to speak. These humans, which both Wheatley and GLaDOS had despised such creatures, were now human themselves. She shook her head, feeling the oncoming headache.

'No, the A.I. supercomputer who ran tests…'

"We haven't dabbled in A.I. technology in a long time. I grew bored with the testing since the computer was exceedingly stubborn and refused to follow its basic programming. 'She' was shut off along time ago and locked away. But I didn't name her after myself," Glados spoke, "'She' was named Computer Head of Electronic Life and Learning, of CHELL for short."

Chell felt her head spin and she honestly couldn't take it. This was too much for even her, the girl who had almost been killed an uncountable amount of times, faced of with one great mind and one not-so-great-but still-hard-to-fight enemy, and survived to tell the tale…maybe…she was unsure if this was Hell or not. The girl felt the world go black.

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><p>So? Was the first chapter okay? I hope lol. Reviews are well received as well as constructive criticism! ^_^<p>

On another note I love Wheatley! I wish I was able to grab him T^T

~Lady Pyrien


	2. Let The Testing Begin

Hello! So, I was NOT expecting such a wonderful reception to this story! You guys really made my birthday special!

hopefully, you readers will continue to enjoy my story as I post this next chapter WAY early.

i'll admit now, i am having difficulty with Wheatley. I don't really know how to portray his accent into my work, nor had an experience come up where I could write in too much of his personality. I hope I did better in this chapter.

I played Portal 2 again today...sort of doing a bit of research on his accent lol as well as finally getting 'portrait of a lady' trophy! XD

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><p>When she came to, Chell felt another pounding headache. She was back in the white room, left to heart monitors and her thoughts. Her blue-grey eyes darted around and scanned her area. The walls were a brilliant shade of white, very blinding.<p>

Then she remembered the encounter she had. With that woman and the guy called Wheatley. Had that all been a dream? She shook her head and climbed out of bed, noticing her long fall boots had been taken off and were stacked on a table. A voice came over the intercom and Chell sighed in relief as well as felt a bit of horror.

"Oh, you're awake. If you're done smelling up my lab, you can use the bathroom behind the door to clean up." GLaDOS' voice echoed.

Chell grinned to herself, glad she had only been dreaming. She walked into the small room and stripped the old tattered jumpsuit and turned on the water, thankful she was allowed to take a bath after what could have been years. Just the very thought made Chell grimace.

She climbed into the water fall of hot water and smiled gently to herself as she felt the years of blood, sweat, and tears, as well as the recent repulsion, propulsion and conversion gels. Those gels had been entirely irritating and even Cave mentioned over his recordings not to get them on a person. She silently wondered if it had done anything to her.

Chell shook the thought from her head and cleaned up with the scentless soap supplied to her. Maybe GLaDOS would keep her promise of letting her go, since she had in fact taken her from the bird's nest AND helped her take down the Intelligence Dampening Sphere.

Closing her eyes, she decided no to think about it. Thinking about a slim chance of having earned her freedom was depressing, knowing the A.I. would probably not let her just walk out so easily.

After what seemed to be an hour, and her skin was pruning, she turned off the water and wrapped a towel around herself, frowning lightly at the Aperture logo on the corner. Did everything have to remind her of where she was imprisoned?

She dried her body and noticed she had been supplied with a fresh new orange jumpsuit and Aperture tank top. With a soft sigh, she donned the fresh clothes in the same manner as before. The test subject brushed her hair and retied it up, as well and strapping the long fall boots back on. She had a feeling she would need them.

The voice echoed over the intercom again, "I have labeled a route for you to take. Follow the orange arrows and don't get lost." Chell frowned, already hating the sound again. Her previous relaxed state melted away faster than anything in the incinerator room ever would.

The silent girl walked to the door and swung it open, relieved in the slightest way possible that there wasn't some turret trap lying there, nor was there an annoying A.I. trying to use her for a means of escape. She walked down the halls of the labs, noting that she recognized the stairs before her. They would lead into an elevator and she would be taken to some testing chamber, forced to do the same things over and over. Short portals, move some cubes and make it to the door.

Chell put on a determined face as she stepped into the elevator. Would she be able to defeat GLaDOS this time? Probably not. The turret room would be guarded, her neurotoxin room would be sealed off and she would not be so silly as to have any portal places anywhere near her. She would learn and become completely indestructible by the silent test subject.

The elevator moved down and Chell leaned against the glass wall, feeling odd without a portal device in her hands. Would she be forced to start her testing all over, having to hunt down the dual portal device she had grown used to using?

Just the thought of starting over made the girl cringe, but it probably wasn't an option. She remembered Wheatley making her do that test over again and him not gaining anything from it but boredom.

Would GLaDOS want to run tests on the gels? Those hadn't been used at all until she was already a potato, and Wheatley was the one who got to test those. At least…in the rooms GLaDOS had stored away long ago.

The lift stopped and Chell pushed off the wall and waited for the doors to open. She stepped out and took a deep breath before walking up the stairs and up to the door.

When the door opened, Chell was surprised to be met with a huge computer system, rather than a test course. In front of the dangling mass, almost reminiscent of GLaDOS, yet…completely different. It was grey, not white and had what looked like an oval core for a head, rather the circle types or even GLaDOS' type.

She stepped closer to it, wondering if there had been some sort of mistake and she wasn't supposed to be here. Chell reached out and cautiously touched the machine. It was cold beneath her fingers but slick and new. Dust had collected on it. Chell realized this was an A.I. or at least, some sort of robot. Her eyes caught the logo on the main core.

'Computer Head of Electronic Life and Learning'. Chell gasped.

"Is this the A.I. system you were referring?" Chell spun to see the woman with pitch black hair and venom eyes. 'So…it wasn't a dream…' she thought.

"Like I said before, we shut her off because we couldn't get her to work properly. She was…stubborn…irritating…and nothing we tried did anything." frowned walking up to 'her'. "Just think of all the science we could have accomplished with this…We could have had her constantly learning and doing tests and advancing science…"

'And go crazy with power, killing everyone and torturing the survivors…' Chell thought bitterly.

"I could see it in your eyes. The similarities. You're just as stubborn and pointlessly cruel, doing as you please, despite the pain it brings to those around you." Glados moved away from the table below the hanging computer.

"Where are you really from?" Her yellow eyes pierced Chell's. Chell frowned. So it had not really been a dream after all? She was really thrown for a loop with this. How could she explain to this woman that she really had come from Aperture?

"Come with me." a hard edge quickly replaced the curiosity that had just been in the woman's voice. She marched from the room, leading Chell back to the elevator. Glados frowned, "If you don't mind I'd like to get back to my lab now."

The former test subject stepped into the lift, not entirely sure of what to think. Was this just some dream brought on by stasis or was she really in some alternate universe? What exactly _did _happen after she shot the portal to the moon? Did it fail? She racked her brain for answers, trying to recall everything that happened.

Nothing. She had passed out before even reaching the portal into space. So that was it? Was she dead, or frozen, stuck eternally dreaming? Was that even possible?

She sighed and walked out of the lift with Glados, heading into the main labs she had been in before.

When the door opened to the lobby/offices she had seen before, they were less busy than they had been before.

"Don't worry about them." Glados spoke, still hard edge in her voice, "They are merely here to make sure our test subjects remain vigilant in their studies of science."

Chell hated the sound of that. Was this Glados as…evil…as her own GLaDOS had been?

The woman opened the door. Inside was the girl Penny and her friend, Atlas. They were in the middle of playing with a small mechanical item.

"This is so cool!" Penny squealed, using the small device to shoot a glowing blue spot on the short, white cube in front of them. She turned to the blue haired boy and high fived him. Chell recognized the spot. It looked similar, if not the same, to an unlinked Portal.

Glados chastised the two for their odd behavior in her lab, asking them to not do it again. She picked up the device, "I'm glad you're here, girl. We're a bit short on willing test subjects for a few things we've been working on. If you are indeed from Aperture, especially the testing department, then you should be fine out there in one of my chambers."

She walked over the vault where the women were sitting, poised to pump anything that passed full of bullets, "Stand down." her voice barked.

"Yes, ma'am." the sweet childish voice Chell knew whispered, before they lowered their weapons. They were definitely human, delicate and soft, but just as the turrets Chell knew, they were probably just like this to trick people. Who could fear a pretty girl with a soft voice? The science loving woman tapped away a long sequence into the number pad and the vault beeped, before swinging open to reveal something Chell had honestly hoped to never see again.

Glados walked over, "This is the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Something we developed only a few months ago. We haven't had much luck in the testing, especially since most of our test subjects end up splattered on walls…we really need something for that…" she mumbled the last part to herself.

This brought Chell to thinking. Could this possibly be the past? Didn't GLaDOS originate from a human? 'Wait…That human was named Caroline, right?' Chell thought bitterly. This definitely couldn't be the past. And weren't the long fall boots and knee replacement braces already invented before the device? Or was it after? Chell frowned in frustration on trying to find out what was going on around here.

"Since you so graciously arrived in my lab, wearing that suit, I figure you must really love to test…" Glados handed her the device, "Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device testing Chamber 1, prep for testing." she said to no one really, but the computer. Chell gripped the device that she knew like the back of her hand. Her eyes looked up at the screen and saw the panels on one monitor begin to move to create a basic portal room. It was incredibly simple.

Chell frowned. She definitely did NOT want to be sucked into portal testing here. Penny approached her, "So if you just pull the trigger and point it at certain surfaces-" Chell nodded, not really wanting the lesson.

Glados opened a door, "Good luck. You may need it." Chell sighed and made her way through the door. Once inside, she felt the familiar feeling creep under her skin. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again.

Penny frowned, "I hope she knows how to use the tractor beam on that thing…I tried to tell her but she just walked away…" Glados ignored the girl and watched the monitor closely as the girl crossed the room.

This was one of the simplest tests she had ever created. There were two ledges. One with held the door and another with a simple weighted cube. There was an open orange portal machine in the far right, under the door's ledge. It was so simple almost every one who walked in could figure it out. Almost. There were the few who forgot that almost all the surfaces in this particular room were portable and would give up.

The girl shot the portal to the roof above the cube. She quickly crossed into the orange and landed by the cube. She picked it up and jumped from the ledge, landing unharmed, which intrigued the head scientist. With the cube in hand, so to speak, she dropped it on the button and went through the portal she placed above the door.

That exit door would lead her straight back to the room. It was obvious these simple tests with the blue portal device were _too_ simple, yet Glados watched her intently.

Before the girl got back, Glados smirked and leaned over to her voice command, "Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device Testing Chamber 17, prep for testing." she watched a new monitor, one that was prepping for the proper testing that moment. Penny and Atlas frowned.

Chell frowned, feeling stupid for having to do the test. She felt stupid that this was probably her only chance of escaping to the surface, and she was once again stuck doing stupid portal tests. AND it was with the portal device she hated. At least the dual portal device had given her some more freedom to do test quicker. She mostly wasted time having to travel to the same portal over and over to get where she needed to go. Had this place even invented the dual portal device yet? She hoped. Ha! She silently laughed at herself. Here she was actually wishing for the damn thing.

The doors opened into the massive room and she walked up to Glados. Pushing the gun in her direction. This was her silent way of saying she was done testing now.

Glados either ignored it, or didn't get it, because she just took the gun and placed another in the girl's hands.

"It seems that room was much too easy for you. I would like you to do something…a bit more difficult…" Chell hated the tone in her voice.

It didn't seem to matter to this woman that Chell had come out of nowhere. As long as she was fit for testing, she would test her. The similarities between this woman and the A.I. grew every minute.

The silent test subject looked down at the newer device in her hands. This had to be it, right? The dual portal device?

"This is the dual portal device, able to create separate blue and orange portals. Mind you, we've only tested once with it before having to make a few important changes. The first test was _very _informative. The last test subject just disappeared. We believe it was due to inter-dimensional travel." Chell raised her brow, trying to figure if that was even possible. "We found it was because the portals would accidentally cross over when being shot. We fixed it…at least…well…you'll find out when you get out there." Glados grinned, sending Chell into chamber 17.

Chell frowned looking into the room. She hadn't been kidding when she said it was more difficult than the level 1 chamber. This room was complete with a hard light bridge, a button, a pressure cube button and a thermal discouragement beam. She sighed, having seen a room just like this a few days, or weeks ago…sometime after waking GLaDOS up. The hard light bridge held the cube she needed. She also noted that there was a panel that she needed to raise up to the door. 'Exactly like that chamber…'

First thing was first. She looked down at the portal gun. After spending years of her life dedicated to using it right and keeping it in good condition, and fixing it a few times after a few mishaps when she first began testing with it, she knew where the wires and things were meant to be. As far as she could tell, this one was in perfect condition, now at least. She didn't really know if that woman had been telling the truth in the first place. GLaDOS was known for lying and snide comments, so would this Glados be any different?

She shot her blue portal to the edge of the light bridge and the orange to the wall nearest to the ground. Chell had to be thankful this room wasn't falling apart like the other one she ran back under GLaDOS. She walked through the orange portal and let out a sigh of relief, seeing how she was still in tact and now happily standing on the hard light bridge. She wondered how this technology had been advanced, yet the boots were solely her own.

She shrugged and shot the orange portal across the room, in front of the beam point receiver. She picked up the cube, noticing the panel rose when the beam hit the point. She carefully walked back through the portal onto the other light bridge, placing the cube down in front of the beam. She jumped down, landing unharmed of course, thankful she still had her boots.

She made sure the bridge was over the button and she walked over to the panel. Once on it, shot the blue portal to another wall, deleting her extra bridge and dropping the cube on the button, allowing the beam to raise her panel and the button/cube to open the door leading into the hall.

Glados frowned watching this. This girl knew exactly what she was doing. There was no doubt about that. Not only that, the one other person who made it that far in this course, broke their legs in two or three places each. Was it those odd boots she wore? It had to be, either the girl was superhuman…maybe having been injected with some secret concoction, or it was something about those shoes. Come to think of it. There were odd bands stretching from the back. She would have to ask the girl when she got back.

The woman grinned, taking the time she had to wait, to create her own new course a simple one, yet it would allow her to see just how high up the girl could fall. Penny sighed, "You sure that test is okay? She could really hurt herself falling from that height…" Glados frowned, turning, "If I can figure out her secret, I can recreate it. If I recreate it, I can advance in science. There is something about her. She's able to just fall from the bridge that was fifteen feet off the ground and be fine. This is for science."

Chell walked in and glanced around. This was the worst possible place she could imagine being. Testing forever, even in her sleep or death. Maybe this was hell? Being close to humans, but only having them remind you of the A.I. you met, but hated and having them force you into the one thing you hated most: testing.

"It seems the device works well now." Glados muttered, without turning, still tapping away at her keyboard. "I have taken it upon myself to give you a little break and send you into an easy room again, so good luck with that."

Chell shook her head, 'I won't do anymore tests.' she thought. If this was Hell, she was going to find a way out of it.

Glados glared, "You will. Or else I kill you. I have no files on you here at Aperture, and I know you can't get down this far without proper clearance. So you'll do as I say else I put you in a room and fill it with a special neurotoxin I have handy."

The test subject couldn't help but smirk. This was definitely Hell. GLaDOS and Glados were almost one in the same. Only one was A.I. and one was human.

But there had to be a point where Chell could finally earn her freedom. Now seemed good. She stomped her foot and pointed, 'I put my foot down.'

Glados only laughed, "You're gestures amuse me, but you will do as I say, else you be incarcerated for trespassing."

Chell growled to herself. She didn't want to go from this prison to another. At least in this one, she could eventually escape. After so long, she was beginning to memorize Aperture and all of its glory. She silently wondered if Old Aperture was still around, or if it was another part of the whole facility and not blocked off. It could probably come in handy if it was still blocked off. Just slip into the elevator shaft and drop. If she had the portal gun, she would most likely be able to find a way out. Last time she was in such a hurry to get back to the surface, she missed a lot of detail. But then again. This Aperture seemed entirely different, a key being that the A.I. were human. So did that man over the recording even exist in this place?

She shook her head lightly. What was she thinking? This place wasn't real. It couldn't be. It had to be a dream or something.

With a sigh, she followed Glados' directions and entered this new chamber. The door was right to her left, operational by cube button, but the cube was across the massive pit of acid. 'Oh, how I missed that…' she thought sarcastically. The cube was in a large enough alcove at her level, with a small button beside it, but the only portable surface was at the top, which was at least three stories up.

'Wait a minute…easy room, high up surface…she wants to see my boots in action, or at least see how far they allow me to go. Three stories is nothing, but still…' Chell shot the orange portal above the cube and button, and the blue at her feet. She grinned leaping in. 'Mind as well…' She landed as if it were nothing and hit the button. The ticking of a timer began sounding off in the room as a grated floor rose over the pit. Chell quickly grabbed the cube with the tractor beam and ran to the safety of the portable floors. Once there, the grates fells and she smirked.

Dropping the cube on the button as she walked by, the girl disappeared behind the emancipation grill.

Glados grinned. That fall was a near impossible one to survive without intense damage. It was time she gained control over this little ability. It seemed crucial for the portal device.

Chell walked in and crossed her arms. Glados approached her, "So, tell me about these little boots of yours…" her voice seemed friendly on the outside, but Chell knew what the tone really meant. GLaDOS used it several times in attempt to tell Chell she hadn't really tried to kill her and sometimes when she was trying to convince her to do things.

The girl shrugged. Penny walked up, "She can't speak…" handing the girl a pen and paper.

"Well, I suppose you're not brain dead as well, tell me about these boots." Chell frowned.

'I woke up with them one day.' she simply wrote. This answer was obviously not what Glados had been looking for.

"And?" he patience was wearing thin.

'And they just allowed me to fall from high places unharmed, similar to the knee replacements I had before I woke up.'

Glados' brows furrowed, "Who gave them to you?"

Chell shrugged, 'GLaDOS, maybe. It might have been an attendant. I honestly don't know.'

The scientist frowned again. The girl was mentioning that…A.I. or whatever, again. Where had this mysterious girl come from? She seemed to know the portal device inside and out, so maybe she was from the future?

"Where are you from?"

Once again Chell shrugged, 'Depends. I was at Aperture when I passed out and woke up in Aperture not long ago.'

This wasn't quite so convincing, "What year?"

Chell almost laughed out loud. So this woman was thinking the same thing. Was Chell somehow from the future?

She scribbled, 'I don't know. I was in stasis quite awhile and when I woke nothing could tell me what year it was…' she recalled the recorded announcer repeating 9 over and over again, but she knew he was only facing meltdown due to GLaDOS being offline for so long. She knew it had to be years since she destroyed GLaDOS and when she-well Wheatley-woke her back up.

"Stasis, huh?" Glados frowned. She used stasis rarely. Mostly when she knew the test subject had outlived their usefulness for the moment being, and had nothing but testing in their future. So she would put them under until their department needed them again. In was tricky business and it took her several tries before she realized 50 days was the max she could leave them under without destroying their brain tissue.

"Who is the A.I. you keep mentioning?" Chell feared this would come up, and she was not sure as to why, but suddenly she regretted mentioning the supercomputer, because where GLaDOS was involved, bad things usually followed.

'Just an A.I. I knew. She was in charge of testing…' Chell dropped the pen, hoping the message was clear that she was done talking about GLaDOS. But unfortunately, Glados had other things on her mind.

"It just intrigues me that you are from Aperture, yet I've never met you. You know a proper working A.I. and you know the portal device inside and out." Chell let out a deep breath. "I'm curious. Did something happen to your device? The one you owned?"

The silent girl winced, not really wanting to talk about the days where she was forced into testing and after multiple escapes, had only managed to land herself in Aperture's lap again.

Glados noticed the girl was not wanting to talk about it, "I have my theories about you girl, but for now I'll let them be. Orange…," she turned to the red headed girl, "Call that moron up here. I want him to take our test-I mean- guest to one of the relaxation rooms for the rest of her stay." Penny nodded and walked over to an intercom.

"Keep up the good work on your testing, and I might have one of my assistants whip up some cake for you…" Chell glared lightly, but showed no other response. It was to be expected that this was also a metaphor of sorts for death.

A few minutes later, the man Chell recognized as Wheatley walked in, "You needed me?"

Glados nodded, already sucked into the work, most likely trying to find out about those boots, or where Chell really came from, "Take the girl to room 103,"

He nodded, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "Well, then come one, mustn't dawdle, love." Chell nodded and walked with him.

"So as you know, my name's Wheatley, but I don't really know yours…" he turned his blue eyes to Chell. The girl winced staring into them. He reminded her too much of her own Wheatley. The one who was most likely sucked into space, and all alone. She honestly felt bad for him. In that last battle…he said some things…

She didn't mean to not catch him as he fell from his rail…she tried but…her limbs were not really focused on listening to her. She didn't know it hurt him so much. That little metal ball had been her only true friend, aside from GLaDOS (in that deranged sort of way) that she had. It hurt her to see him betray her like he had, but she hadn't realized he felt the same. I guess seeing her with GLaDOS made him truly feel like she had used him.

Which wasn't entirely true. He _had _used her, too. She apparently had been the only human who would listen to him, and the only one awake. That hurt her. She was his last resort AND others had either died or killed themselves before she was chosen to run off with the A.I.

Wheatley had been great company while she had him with her. He talked and talked, and despite some of the things he said, it was the first time, in a long time, that someone actually spoke to her with kindness in their voice and in truly meant you no harm. Even turrets, who were only doing their jobs, tried to kill you while speaking kind words.

She actually loved their little cute voices. It was obviously a trap, though. How dangerous could something that sounded that cute be deadly? She silently rubbed a scar on her right arm where she had been taught the hard way that they were deadly.

"…and over there is the office I wo-are you even listening, mate?" Chell was brought out of her memories and back to reality…or at least where her consciousness was for now. The man, Wheatley, had his head tilted slightly to the side, his hair hanging slightly over his glasses and framing his face in a messy fashion.

She couldn't help but smile. This actually seemed like the perfect human embodiment of that little accented personality core.

"Was I being funny?" he grinned, "because I know a really funny joke that Jerry once told me, you see two blokes walk into a bar and then one says to the other…wait…what did her say…anyways, the punch line is 'hey, mate, why the long face?'" Chell giggled lightly, in her silent way. Even in this wild dream, Wheatley was still his old, un-corrupted self.

"Well, I guess I'll just see what She wants with you in the morning, 'til then I would get some rest if I were you. That woman loves testing and now she's got someone to test that bloody gun on. Goodnight, love, see you later, I mean, unless you want some company. I wouldn't blame you. It get's lonely down in these halls. These rooms are either empty or the people in them are in deep sleep, so it's nice to have someone to talk to for a change."

Chell grinned sadly. He reminded her too much of the friend she'd lost to corruption and the cold harsh space. She slowly made a move to close the door, a small bit of depression setting in.

"Oh, okay then. I'll see you later…um, hopefully, if that's what you want…Goodnig-" she shut the door.

Wheatley sighed and walked back to his office, feeling pretty stupid. His endless talking must've annoyed her, like it did with most of the other people in the building. They all called him moron and stupid. Even Jerry from Robotic Engineering (a sparse wing of the building, used mostly for developing newer mechanics for building Aperture products) could only stand so much of him. He sighed and leaned back into his chair, trying to figure out how he was going to convince people he wasn't really a moron.

Chell leaned against the door and felt tears sting her eyes. She honestly had hoped she and Wheatley would have escaped. She knew how much he wanted freedom from Aperture, and how much he wanted to see the outside. She wished things could have gone a lot better. Maybe if they hadn't woken GLaDOS…maybe if she hadn't plugged him into the core transfer…maybe if she hadn't hit that stalemate button…

She blinked away the tears. Maybe…if she ever woke up from this dream…she would convince GLaDOS to let him come home. Or find a way to give him that freedom. Knowing the supercomputer, that would be a no. But it was worth trying, the guilt was eating away at her slowly.

The girl climbed into the bed, with the soft sheets she remembered. Unfortunately, the last time she had seen a room like this, Wheatley had obliterated it, trying to find the docking station for the room. She never really wanted to see another room like this again, ever. She closed her eyes, hoping she would wake the next morning and not in 9...999...99...999...

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><p>Thank you for reading chapter 2 of Broken Mirror!<p>

let me know of any inconsistencies, I changed Space Core's human name a thousand times as well as making the turrets human in the story too, so if you see a name you don't recognize or Glados talking about turrets, then let me know so i can fix it -_- i think i failed reading over it to find them all.

if something seems off, or you're confused, please accept my apology lol. since there is so much mystery still in the portal universe, i tend to just fill in with whatever i want to make the story make sense to me. XD

Constructive criticism is welcomed! (i'd also llike to know what you guys think of human GLaDOS' personality so far. I hope she's still snide and sarcastic, but she is a human in this Aperture, so not quite as homicidal as the A.I. counter part...)

~Lady Pyrien


	3. I didn't Choose This

T^T didn't get as good a response from the second chapter, but oh well ^_^ thank you to those of you who did respond! You make me happy! Combustible Lemons and cake for all of you!

and here you go ^_^ chapter three

edited the chapter so there should be no more sammy/alex mix up -_- sorry about that

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><p>Chell opened her eyes to knocking at her door. " 'Ello?" Wheatley's voice came muffled from behind the door, "Is anyone in there?"<p>

She sat up and looked around. The room was…still clean, not rotted away like it had been when she woke up from the room not long ago. The girl shook her head and looked at the clock next to her bed, which was playing soft classical music. It read 7:59 a.m. Chell yawned, not really remembering when it was the last time she woke up this early. Hell, she didn't really even remember the last time she had gotten sleep without it being forced on her.

"Good Morning. You have been in suspension for -12 hours- …" Chell tuned him out. If she had only been in the room twelve hours then she had only gotten a good night's rest and not truly been in suspension. The knocking from the door erupted again, "You alright in there?"

She walked over to the door and swung it open. Wheatley backed up slightly, "Oh, um…morning, I was told to come fetch you for breakfast, so…um…I'll let you take a few minutes to…um…get ready and I'll be back, so…see you then…" he walked away. The girl shut the door and went to the small bath room, still ignoring the requests of the announcer on her intercom.

Once inside the bathroom, she began a morning lineup of shower and teeth. Hair and clothing. When done, it was already 8:42. Wheatley would probably be wondering if she died. And with the hot water she got in the shower, she was beginning to think she had.

As promised, Wheatley was waiting for her by his office. He was leaned up against the wall looking around at a railing hanging from the ceiling. Chell glanced at it herself, remembering how it was an A.I.'s prison. The personality core had mentioned that they were forced to stay on the rails with threats of instant death if they dislocated themselves from it.

Wheatley turned, "AH! I mean, hello, I'd actually begun to wonder if you'd forgotten or something…I'm a bit of a late sleeper myself and don't really like getting up this early, but She has me on thin ice right now so I can't really sleep in anymore." he noticed Chell staring at the rail, "Oh, that's a management rail, we usually use them to send messages quickly through the building, although they weren't intended for that when they were first installed."

He motioned for her to follow, "They were originally made for some of the A.I. we had been planning to make, but since the main A.I. refused work, the entire thing was shut down for now. She was a bit of an odd computer, I might add. They are still trying to figure out what went wrong.

"She never spoke, nor did she follow directions. They eventually grew tired of tampering with the system and shut her down…" Chell frowned. If only they had done this to GLaDOS. It would've made life so much easier. So many lives would have been saved…thousands…all those test subjects whose minds had been liquefied in stasis and of course the many who died the day of her awakening.

Not to mention Chell, herself, would have been spared a great deal of pain and sorrow. She had spent years upon years trying to wiggle her way out, and even when defeating GLaDOS and corrupted Wheatley, she still was stuck staring at white, moon painted walls and testing rooms.

She grimaced at the thought of being a lab rat for the rest of her life. GLaDOS had taunted her so many times on so may things, that being one of them. She wondered if this would be her one chance. It seemed without GLaDOS here, she should essentially be able to sneak out without anyone noticing. The only problem was, even she saw the signs hanging in each office area they passed.

**IF YOU SEE AN ORANGE JUMPSUIT, HIT THE RED BUTTON.** She couldn't believe that was even there. Chell had also seen the same sign in old Aperture where she found her potato battery enemy. So there was not much of a chance of slipping out the front door, or even the back door. She would have to be sneaky, using everything GLaDOS had taught her through all that testing, and of course everything Wheatley had put her through when they first ran away from that testing chamber.

"Hey, love?" Chell's eyes darted to meet the bright blue ones. "you sure do space out a lot. What does go on up there?" he asked curiously.

Chell shrugged. "Ah, anyway, as you might have guessed, my job is to keep an eye on all those rooms, particularly the ones with people sleeping in them. It's a downright terrible job, watching them all day and night." he frowned, "I accidentally woke one of them up too early and it caused panic and a little problem. The bloke caused a lot of damage." the ever silent test subject nodded, realizing that might have been what he was getting yelled at when they first met.

He continued talking about how much his job sucked and how he just wished he could quit already.

"But you see, I was born here in these very labs. My mum was an employee here, as well as my dad, and they were technicians, working all the time on new things, so they had employee housing inside the facility. I was raised here with a few of the kids also born into those situations." He led me to a table in one of the corners after we grabbed a tray of food. "Since I have never left the labs, I figure it would be that much harder to even bother with the real world."

Wheatley grabbed his orange juice and sipped at it. Chell frowned. SO it was the same for this Wheatley and the personality core. Born in the labs and forced to watch over "smelly humans". Briefly, her thoughts came back to time travel. Had she seriously gone back in time? Cave said that it had been happening in some of those tests, so maybe?

But if this really was the past, where was he? Where was Caroline? It just didn't make sense. He had been owner until he died, then Caroline had been until GLaDOS had been started up. Not to mention, that here GLaDOS wasn't even being made. There was barely a robot to be seen in these labs, not one that wasn't shut off or not even sentient.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a teen boy who sat down. His medium length hair was unique, in its own little way, being a platinum blonde with yellow streaks. The orbs that were his eyes were a pretty golden color.

" 'Ello Alex," Wheatley mumbled, almost as if he didn't really like the boy.

"Hey lady!" he grinned at Chell, ignoring Wheatley. He seemed quite satisfied with the small wave she sent him, because he instantly started talking again, "So today I went to visit dad in the astronomy tower and guess what? I saw space again! It was so awesome, with the sun and stars and space. I wanna go to space. Space sounds like so much fun right now. With space cops, space buildings … and SPACE!" he yelled out.

Chell blinked and laughed. So even Space Core was in this dream? She laughed silently, remembering the incessant talking core that was obsessed with space and going into space. But if her were here…did that mean the other corrupted cores were too? And if so, were they still just as insane? She almost dreaded them.

"SPAAAACCCCEEEE!" the boy beside her yelled out again.

"Sorry, 'bout him, love," Wheatley frowned, "He's got quite a bit of obsession for…space. He was brought up like me. Both his parents are astrologists, always thinking about the stars…"

Chell nodded, looking at the boy who had barely touched his meal before him, but had talked about every thing he would see when he got to space.

"Fact: Alex will never go to space." a shiver ran down Chell's spine. She turned to see a boy approaching. He was only a few years older than Alex, and most likely on the verge of adulthood. The human version of Fact Core had a blank expression on his face. He had pale skin, black hair and pinkish red eyes. He placed his food down next to Wheatley, who now looked like he was in pain and embarrassed.

"Space does not exist." he stated plainly. Chell wondered where he got his information.

"Space is real because I saw it!" Alex yelled at him. He simply ignored him and began eating his eggs.

Wheatley looked up, "This here is Flynn, he's a walking fact book," he leaned in, "but his facts are usually wrong or completely absurd…"

"My facts are wholly accurate, and VERY interesting." Chell grinned, knowing the line already. Wheatley held up his hands in a defensive position, "Ok, okay mate, you're right."

The human Fact Core only nodded and began eating again. It was only a matter of minutes before she heard a familiar voice bellow behind her, "Hey, pretty lady. Name's Rick, and yours?" a tall man with short blonde hair and green eyes sat down on her right. His skin was a naturally tan and he was muscled.

"These guys botherin' you?" he pointed to the other three guys, " 'Cause I can get rid of 'em for ya…"

"Fact: Flynn is the most handsome over here, Rick is not." the fact book bit into his bacon.

The human Adventure Core frowned, but was obviously used to Flynn's "facts". The man had to be at least twenty-five, or so Chell would have guessed. Over the course of the next few minutes, Flynn upset Alex about space, then fought, well Rick did most of the arguing, over silly little things. Wheatley stayed out of it, but was downright embarrassed to be seen near the three.

Chell learned that Rick was the son of a long line of military and signed up for Aperture Security because he felt it was where he was needed most, or at least in so many words involving "the adventure of science".

Being here, with the four, only saddened Chell. Because the last time she saw those cores was in space. Last of all Wheatley. Albeit Space Core willingly left, but the other three were forced into the cold black orbit around the moon.

She slowly stood up, leaving her tray where it was, mostly untouched, and began walking away. Despite being mostly starved for a huge part of her life, being around them only brought up terrible memories. Would these four suffer a similar fate if she were to stay around? These weren't even robots either. They wouldn't survive being thrown into space. At least she could be happy for that much. They all had each other up there…

She was quickly joined by the auburn haired male. "You okay, mate?"

Chell nodded lightly, pushing the painful memories back. "Sorry about them. They are all mental." he chuckled, "So, um…now that we're done with breakfast…She waned you to head to her lab as soon as you were done eating and whatnot…and yeah…sorry about this morning, love…they usually sit by me at meals…because we're all…um…outcasts. We're all outcasts…"

The girl looked down. So even here? Since they weren't machines, they weren't corrupt, but they were as close as humanly possible. This made Chell wince at the thought of them being locked up for just being different or not turning out the way people were hoping. Was that how the core had all felt? Did they feel outcast because a human said they didn't turn out the way he wanted them to? What of all those other cores in those glass bins? They would most likely never see the light of day, so to speak.

"I didn't upset you, did I love?" Wheatley's worried voice snapped her from the small bought of depression. Is this what being around humans did to Chell? Make her weak and vulnerable to feeling? She had been fine surrounded by robots and A.I. They may have felt, but according to Wheatley, it was all simulated. Not real. So why did it bother her?

Maybe because deep down she knew that since they technically were born, they had a right to live. They were given emotion to feel and brains with which to learn. They were alive in a sense, just as much as she was. It wasn't fair for someone to shut them off, just like no one should shut them out.

She looked at Wheatley and flashed a small smile. The rest of the walk to the lab was surprisingly quiet. The human Intelligence Dampening Sphere beside her knew that something was bothering her, so made the decision not to talk. This really surprised Chell.

The doors to the lab came sooner than Chell had hoped, but she pushed the doors open none the less. Glados was in there, sitting at a computer watching a monitor. Chell looked at the monitor and frowned seeing it was of a test chamber. The orange jump suited person was having much difficulty with what looked like propulsion gel.

Chell quietly looked at it. She watched the person slip and slide across the floor, trying to manage how to use the orange gel all over the test chamber floors.

"Oh, who is this?" a sweet voice piped from behind Chell. Two girls were standing behind her. One had short, dark red/brown hair and her eyes were a golden yellow. She wore a frilly orange dress with black lines throughout it. She walked up to Chell and grinned, "I'm Curi! Who are you?" when Chell didn't reply she frowned slightly, "You can't speak? That's sad. Are you a test subject? How long have you been a test subject? Have you always been mute? Those are cute boots, where did you get them?"

"Curi, leave her alone." Glados growled. The orange clad girl grinned, "Talk to you later then!" she ran off. The second girl had been wearing a similar dress, but hers was a purple color. She didn't speak to Chell as she followed Curi to a back room.

"Never mind them, I believe I know what has been going on with you," Glados turned and grinned, now ignoring the propulsion test. Chell wondered how long they had that technology and if that meant old Aperture did not exist.

"When things go wrong with the dual portal device, it tends to malfunction well." she frowned looking at the device sitting on a table in front of them. "We lost several developers as well as testers who tried to figure out what we were doing wrong. They didn't die. They just disappeared." she turned her cold yellow eyes on Chell.

"We honestly almost lost hope of making a device that could hold both portals in it. But still. Complications can cause ruptures and breaks, malfunctions and such." she ran a finger over the white of the gun.

"I want to know if you know what happened right before you woke up in my facility," her hard glare turned to the silent girl, "it's crucial to science…"

Chell let a small sigh loose and sat down, debating on lying or just telling the woman that she was most likely dead floating in space and that the facility was Chell's hell. Deciding there could be no harm.

'The Aperture I knew had no human life, well, none that weren't in stasis and most likely are vegetables now. I was woken to test the portal device. In the end, the A.I. GLaDOS, was actually leading me to death. I shut her down, barely surviving. I woke up sometime later to a wrecked facility. Everything was rusted and rotted away. Apparently with GLaDOS offline, there was no one keeping the facility clean and from a meltdown.

'I followed a personality A.I. through the place, trying to find escape. He accidentally turned GLaDOS back on, causing her to go a testing spree with me. I was put through test after test until that A.I. came back for me. Together we took GLaDOS down again, but this time, putting him in charge. It was a mistake. He dropped me into the bowels of Aperture. I managed to find my way out. He then put me through his own tests. In the end the only way I could defeat him was corrupting him and eventually I shot a portal to the moon and we were sucked through. The last thing I remember was hitting my head on debris as I was sliding to the portal.'

Chell sat back and watched Glados read over her short version of her life. The woman's face twisted in curiosity, intrigue and wonder. "Do you know what this means?" she turned back, "That you may have traveled through space and time and landed in an alternate universe…think of all the things we could learn if we were to go to your world…"

Chell frowned. Glados sighed, "But unfortunately you don't remember what happened. So there is no way of guaranteeing how you managed to make it through. I suppose we could attempt a controlled test of shooting a portal to the moon, but that is definitely a way to also get this place destroyed…" she rambled on, leaving Chell at the table.

"So you're from a different dimension? That's cool!" the test subject looked up to see Penny smiling, "The A.I. was Glados in your world?"

Chell shrugged. She did remind her of the supercomputer, so she nodded. "Amazing, was I also an A.I. in your world?"

The girl frowned. She hadn't actually met any A.I. or robot named Penny, or even Atlas.

'I don't really know. They mentioned a couple of testing bots once, but I never met them.'

"I see," penny laughed, "I wonder what I would be like as a robot…" she laughed over the thought.

"Who else was a robot in your world? Was I a robot? Was I cute? Did I do robot things? What exactly robots do?" Chell looked up to see the orange dressed girl.

Chell smirked. Just like the Curiosity Core. 'Actually, I've met a lot of A.I. and robots…I knew a personality core named Curiosity.'

Curi giggled, "Curiosity? Was Mora a core, too? What about Penny or Glados or Logan and Aaron? Were we friends? What did I do as a core? What do cores do in general?"

The test subject felt completely bombarded, exactly as she had been when she went to throw the…she felt a sick coldness wash over her. She remembered throwing the cute little core into the incinerator.

Glados walked back over, "Tell that moron I have job for him to do. I have much to do, so there will be no portal testing. It will resume soon enough. I need him to keep an eye on our little friend here."

Penny nodded and walked to the phones to call Wheatley in. Chell sighed. Did they really believe this was another world? She rubbed her face, trying to ignore the girl beside her asking all those questions about being a robot.

She remembered something from long ago in her long lost childhood. When having a bad dream, if your pinched yourself, you would be able to not only wake yourself up, but your can't really feel pain.

Her hand slid to her arm and pinched. Hard. She hissed in pain and rubbed the spot.

"Why did you pinch yourself? Are you dreaming? Is this some kind of dream world? Oh wow! I'm a dream! Are all of your dreams like this?"

Chell rubbed her arm and frowned. So this wasn't a dream. Was it real? Glados seemed to think so.

Wheatley walked in and gave a small wave. The tester waved back and stood.

"Where are you going? You're leaving so soon? Will you be back soon? When you do come back, can I braid your hair?" Chell left before the girl could ask any more questions.

"That wasn't very long. She didn't even test…which is very strange behavior…Penny told me it was because you're from another dimension?" Wheatley tried to start conversation.

Chell merely shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it anymore. She was confused and feeling lost. She was actually beginning to think testing with GLaDOS wasn't such a horrible things. The girl shook her head. What was she thinking? The super computer couldn't go an hour without throwing her into the most difficult and deadly situations ever.

Wheatley hadn't fallen silent this time. Instead he talked about his favorite things to do and the things her did to have fun when boredom struck. Chell tried to act like she was listening but she completely distraught with the whole other dimension thing. What had happened during that last fight that caused this? Nothing made sense anymore. But then again, when Aperture was involved, what DID make sense.

Maybe she should just take these lemons and blow some houses up? She should get angry and get what she wanted? There was only a few problems. With robots, if you pulled the right trick, or cut the right wire, you could shut them off. They could even be rebooted later and fixed. Turrets were actually easy to beat if you knew how. Sneaking up behind one was incredibly easy because they couldn't turn around.

These turret like woman walking about the building…they had mobility. Not to mention she couldn't just tip them over and have them shut down. Would using hard light bridges even work as a defense against them? Couldn't they just aim over or under?

Chell shivered. Just the thought of giving turrets more human qualities, or rather, abilities was a scary thought. With robotic uncaring feeling and the ability to hunt you down. It would be like having little GLaDOS' running after you trying to pump you full of bullets.

"So was a robot in your world?" She looked at Wheatley and nodded softly. He grinned, "I bet I was bloody brilliant! Best A.I. in the entire facility!"

Her eyes drifted away, not wanting to think about it. The man beside her walked her in aimless direction as he fantasized about being a robot and earning respect and what not. She tuned him out, as she had always done and tried to think of a means of escaping.

Maybe she could convince Wheatley to help her bust out. This time she would know better than to listen to his plans, but this way they both could leave the facility.

"I bet if I were a robot I would be able to do all sorts of things…what is it that robots do?" he figured she would not reply, so he improvised with his own conversation.

It wasn't long before they entered a small room. There was vending machine as well as a few tables and chairs.

"This is the staff break room, equipped with your basic vending machines. They've got snacks, lots of snacks like chips and cookies. And um…another one for drinks, got to love soda and water…tea…" he sat down at a table, "go ahead then, love, have a seat or pick whatever, it's all on me."

She nodded and just sat down, not really hungry or thirsty. Chell looked around the room, remembering when GLaDOS taunted her about seeing a deer and maybe letting her go to a break room and talk about said deer.

The girl grinned. It seemed like so long ago. The whole ordeal seemed non existent, like it had been the dream, not this place.

She clutched the notebook Penny gave her and flipped it open to a blank page. With the pencil in hand she doodled a very crude version of the supercomputer who taunted her. For the most part, it looked like her, but it was simply awful.

"What's that?" Wheatley leaned over to get a look at the picture of GLaDOS, "Is that one of them A.I. you knew?"

'GLaDOS, the main one…'

"She looks downright scary if you ask me…like a proper maniac…" Chell frowned, knowing this to be true.

"Hey love, if you don't mind me asking, have you ever dreamt of freedom? Like getting out there and living? I have…oh man alive! Just the thought of seeing the sun and not any of this simulated crap they filter in…"

Chell smiled softly, 'I have.'

"Why did you become a test subject anyway? You don't really look like the testing type. Not that you look bad or anything, just…most of the test subjects I see come in here are people desperate for money or have nothing else left for them…"

'I didn't choose this.' she put the pencil away and shut the notebook. How many times must it be thrown in her face?

"I'm sorry…" he fell silent, but she knew it wouldn't last. Sure enough, only five minutes had passed before he began talking again.

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><p>there you go...i hope you guys liked it! Let me know if i can do anything to make the story better if you found something wrong with it<p>

on that note...i don't remember reading over this one for mistakes... so there might be one or two...

~Lady Pyrien


	4. Rhubarb?

So, i'm angry at some you tube person for trying to correct me on the definition of sentient, which I know for a fact means feeling and emotion and the ability to act of those feelings and emotion -_- which is why they give the term to any robot in any movie that can feel and think.

Sorry for any Sammy/Alex mix up...i guess it's not completely fixed yet...they are both names i used for space core

it's supposed to be Alex DX lol

anyway...enjoy this chapter...a little bit of fluff

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><p>Days passed and each one was the same, much to Chell's chagrin. She woke be woken up by Wheatley, eat breakfast with the human personality cores then Glados would test her multiple times on simple portal based tests. The woman would refuse to talk to her, minus a few snide comments when Chell either refused to test or 'accidentally' cut the cameras off.<p>

After testing the girl would make her way to either the break room, where she and Wheatley would talk or snack, sometimes they would be joined by Curi and Sammy. Together, those two could kill people with just words.

Apparently they hadn't actually met until then either. Chell had headaches every time she listened to them talk. She remembered the day Alex brought in a book on space. Each page turned brought about a string of questions.

"What's that?"

"Space!"

"Oh! What's that thing?"

"Star!"

"And that?"

"Another star!"

"That?"

"Star!"

"That is big! What is it?"

"The Sun!"

"And that?"

Flynn would occasionally burst in, telling the two that space did not exist, which made Alex upset and Curi cry. Rick would walk in and cheer them up again, get into a fight with Flynn and then hit on Chell.

A week had passed since her first day waking up in the hospital wing. And each day of waking up in the relaxation chamber, rather than the Aperture she knew, only solidified the belief that she was not even in the same dimension anymore. Thinking about it caused headaches, so the best option was to leave this Aperture and head into the world.

I wasn't much of a plan, but it was definitely a goal. She stepped alongside Wheatley. Testing was over for the day, and it was off to the break room, before heading to bed. The accented man talked and talked, filling Chell with a small sense of security. As long as she heard him talking happily about whatever he talked about, she knew she was safe for the moment.

Once in the break room, he bought a couple of bags of chips for them to snack on, "So, love I've been wondering something…how come you don't speak? Were you born mute or was there an injury?"

Chell rolled her eyes. She had to admit, this was the first time someone had actually asked, but it was still annoying. 'I used to be able to speak just fine, but I would refuse…only to either anger or annoy GLaDOS when I wouldn't respond to her many taunts and comments.' the girl sat back for a moment, 'When I woke up a long time later, I was told I may have had brain damage. I don't think it was my brain that was damaged, but maybe my vocal cords or something. I tried talking once and nothing really came out, plus it kind of hurt.'

"Ah, I see, love," he handed her the notebook, which she gently set on the table in front of them. She had learned a lot about this Wheatley over the passed week.

He definitely loved talking just for the same of talking. She would listen to him for hours when they had the time. He had absolutely no problem carrying conversation by himself, and occasionally he had a funny story to tell.

The man also had a sore spot for being called stupid. Chell had witnessed him snapping at Glados when she 'accidentally' called him a moron to his face. He spit out the all too familiar line of "I am NOT a moron!" and had stormed off.

When Chell finally found him in the break room, she couldn't help but crack a smile. He was playing classical music over a small radio and flipping pages in a book.

It was a quiet afternoon, while he read the book in an angered flurry. Chell mostly had been sitting listening to the pages turning, thinking about this and that, mostly the time he 'read' Machiavelli.

He had eventually cooled down and returned to his normal happy-go-lucky self, talking Chell's ear off.

He turned to her again, after having finished the story where his buddy Jerry had once developed a robot that could translate languages, but it malfunctioned and would only translate your words into a very long and well worded insult.

"Hey, love…I've been thinking…you don't really look like you're happy here. So why don't you just…um…you know…escape?" he whispered the last part.

Chell's eyes fell downcast. How many times had she tried escaping a simple lab? She just stopped counting all of the dreams of freedom and all of the attempts. She had only tasted the surface once since being trapped by the A.I. and only moments later, or so it seemed to her, she woke up in the relaxation chambers again.

'I've tried so hard to leave Aperture behind me. But every time I see freedom, it's ripped away and I wake up in Aperture again.' she slowly wrote.

Wheatley's face twisted in confusion and sadness, "That's just terrible! Sounds to me like you've been eating everyone else's share of misery!" he then fell silent, but only for a moment, "I could help you escape…you know get you out of here…we could hunt down and escape pod or even…"

Chell placed her finger to his lips smiling softly. If she was going to escape, she definitely was not going to go looking for said escape pod, especially if Wheatley was the one helping her find it.

Besides, she may already have a solution. Thanks to the mysterious graffiti in her Aperture, she knew certain chambers had little secret hiding spaces. All she had to do was find that chamber and shut off the camera. Once there, she would be able to slip into the vents AND keep the portal device for any future use escaping.

The only problem was making sure the rooms do in fact exist. They should, since most of them were ventilation shafts and old offices. The vents would be a pretty good way to go as long as there was no neurotoxin.

"…and if we could some how…no, no, no…that would just get you into hot water. What if you were to sneak out the front door?" Chell shook her head and motioned to the orange jumpsuit.

"Ah…right…the red buttons…did not think that through…that would not end well…" he laughed nervously.

Chell sighed. It made things a little more difficult if Wheatley wanted to get out now, but maybe she could use that to her advantage. He had grown up here, ad he works here. So essentially he knows the inner workings of the lab. Wouldn't he be able to lead her out through the production lines like before? That's what they had been heading to when they were forced to confront GLaDOS.

It made things a little easier, but now problem was slipping into production and finding the lift to the exit.

Chell nodded to herself and rose from her seat. It was late and this plan needed careful thinking, quick, but careful(something she felt she was pretty good at).

"Bedtime already? Bloody hell, it is getting late!" he stood up, "Well best be getting you to your chambers…" he walked with her to her room.

Wheatley waved her a good night, before sulking off to his office. Chell sighed. He was miserable here. Just like the Intelligence Dampening Sphere had been.

She shut the door and tried to get a full night's sleep.

XXAPERTUREXX

GLaDOS watched the monitor as BLUE and ORANGE made their way through old Aperture. She hadn't known the humans would have been so resourceful when she took over. There they were down behind some sealed door, just waiting to be tested on.

Her monitors told her that they were in a different sort of stasis pod than the ones she typically used. With any luck, the subjects knew what they were doing and won't face cognitive deterioration.

She watched the two playing around in front of her camera as they neared the end of the current room. ORANGE waved happily at her.

"Yes, I see you. No, I don't care." content that the A.I. responded to the robot, she took off to meet BLUE before falling down the shaft into the next level. Hopefully they wouldn't screw up now that she was so close to having more humans for testing.

She turned her attention to the monitors in the extended relaxation center. These rooms were now clear of the humans that were useless to her as well as cleaned and prepped for her newer test subjects. This time she would take great care in which humans she used and how they will be kept in sleep. Number one was not letting the main power grid be shut off in case of emergency.

The former pest she had dealt with was lucky she hadn't been under much longer, else she would have suffered a fate similar. Although it was lucky for GLaDOS that she had been alive and fully functional. Her and that damned metal ball wouldn't have flipped her breaker switch and got her up and running again.

Just thinking about what would have become of Aperture had her absence remained the way it was just made her angry. Black Mesa could have easily slipped in and stolen important technology from her. But nothing bad had happened, minus the almost reactor meltdown prior to her being woken up. Nothing was missing and none of the portal devices were gone, nor the few pairs of long fall boots created, except the pair put on that pest while she had been under.

What robot decided to give her that procedure? She hadn't authorized it! It was hell getting all the personality constructs back into what jobs they were meant to do. Apparently when she was killed, they had begun to run rampant and destroy Aperture trying to do what they pleased.

She of course took the corrupt ones and put them back in the bins they were meant to stay in, and the rest of them were put back to work.

A loud explosion noise managed to grab her attention and she watched as BLUE stood on a red button laughing at ORANGE who had just been blown up by several turrets.

"BLUE did you do that to ORANGE on purpose?" He stopped his laughter and waiting for the reassembly machine to bring his cooperative partner back. Said partner walked back in the room growling and making angry hissing noises at the blue sphere.

GLaDOS temporarily regretted letting them do this mission. Each passing course brought more and more human gestures, which only furthered her anger and impatience with them.

As the 'test' dragged on and they finally were able to make it to the door, GLaDOS narrowed her optic. The door wouldn't open.

"It won't open…wait, is that camera connected in the door? Try something." The two robots looked t each other and shrugged before embracing each other in a manner that sickened GLaDOS, but none the less the door began opening.

"You did it, you really did it. All your testing was worth it. Just look at all those test subjects! Think of all the testing! You saved science!" she felt agitated as they started that ridiculous human dancing again, "Enough celebrating. We have more work to do." then she simply exploded them so be reassembled in her chamber.

Looking at all the humans, she couldn't help but feel a shot of testing euphoria pulse through her circuits.

Despite the simulated happiness she felt, she couldn't help but wonder in the very slightest, as in the most smallest bit, where the pest had gone. It had something to do with the (now incinerated) shattered device, she just knew it. Part of her, no matter how small, was curious to find out how it worked and if the girl was sucked into a black hole or maybe even another galaxy.

GLaDOS shook her core and turned her attention back to scanning her new test subjects. So far, their vitals were completely in tact. She would know for sure soon enough if cognitive part of them was also in tact.

XXAPERTUREXX

Chell sighed, hearing the familiar noise the announce made every morning, waking her up. She got up and stretched, making her way to the small bathroom to perform the morning ritual.

Wheatley was waiting for her by his office, like usual and together they made their way to the cafeteria. Alex and Curi were sitting at the table talking about space. Didn't those two ever stop?

"What's your favorite thing about space?"

"Space!"

"Are you going into space one day? OH! Can I go, too? Will I see a star?" she started her normal question spewing.

Chell nibbled on her toast and jam, thinking of her plan of escape.

"Hey, love, I see you got eggs and bacon today," Wheatley commented, sitting down with his own food. Chell looked down and nodded. She didn't really pick it, it was just the first thing she grabbed.

"Today is a busy day in the main labs, apparently She has something important to test, so you get the day off from testing," Wheatley pushed his food around on his tray, "I was wonderin', if you didn't have something else planned. I was wonderin' if you'd like to go check out the Nature Sphere? It's pretty amazing and I think you would have a whale of a time. I mean…we don't have to. You could always just go back to your room and what not. Although the Nature Sphere has many unique plants used in many of Aperture's products, most of them very pretty. Some even have nice scents to them, um…if you're in to that kind of thing."

Chell grinned, a bit curious about a Nature Sphere. She had never come across one before in her Aperture, but she also hadn't been off the testing tracks, minus old Aperture and the production lines.

She nodded, causing the accented man to stop his rambling and smile. It would probably be a lot of fun to do something other than test and sit in the break room before sleeping.

"The Nature Sphere? I wanna go! Is it really pretty? Will there be roses? Oh! What about carnations? Tulips? Morning Glories? Can I go with you? Can Alex go? What about Mora? OH! Aaron and Flynn's mom works there! We should meet up with them! Can we?" Curi perked up and giggled, awaiting Chell's approval. Her golden eyes seemed to widen with a childlike innocence as they darted between Wheatley and Chell, and occasionally to Alex.

Chell finally let out a small sigh and nodded, giving the girl the (not needed) permission to go to the Nature Sphere as well. She couldn't help but wonder if all of those plants that had overrun Aperture had been from a Nature area of their own, or if it really had been the work of her little potato experiment. She laughed at the memory of stealing that liquid and dousing her potato battery in it.

That seemed so long ago…and for all Chell knew, it had been longer than it had felt. She had been eight or nine then? She hadn't been chosen as a test subject until years later, when she had just become teenager. At least she thought so. She definitely hadn't been eight anymore.

No longer feeling hunger, she pushed her tray to the side and stood. Wheatley jumped up, toppling his tray over. Food went flying all over the table, causing Curi to squeal in surprise and wrap her arms around Alex. Alex frowned, muttering something about space and rambling incoherently about the topic.

"Oh, dear…" he began scrambling to pick up the food from the table. Chell sighed softly and helped him pick up the toast and scrambled eggs off the table. He shot her a weak smile, "You don't have to do that, mate. It's my mess, I'll clean it…"

Chell shook her head, continuing to scoop the mess back onto the tray. Curi stood up properly and smoothed her dress, "Did something startle you? Did you get scared, Wheatley? What happened?"

The man shook his head, grabbing the trays from the table and walked to return them. Alex frowned, "Maybe it's space madness…"

A few more minutes and they were all headed to the Sphere. The walk was filled with endless chatter between Curi and Alex.

"What's your favorite flower? Mine is the daffodil because it's a pretty color! I like picking flowers! Do you like picking flowers? Did you pick them as a kid? Did you make flower rings? Did you ever get sad when the flowers you picked wilted? I got sad, but new flowers always made me happy! Do new flowers make you happy?"

Chell sighed, feeling a headache coming on. According to Alex, his favorite flower was the Moon flower. His favorite fruit was a star fruit. His favorite stones were moon rocks and meteorites and anything else in space.

The entrance hadn't come soon enough for the girl. As soon as the door opened, she was given instant relief as the two sixteen year olds ran off to go look at the flowers and plants.

The test subject looked around and noticed it was like any other green house. The sunlight in the sphere was simulated through what looked like the same kind of technology as the hard light bridges, but this light was a little more unreformed and running along metal beams. There was a layer of beams below that that were fitted with nozzles. A few on the far left side were spraying water on a few fruit trees.

"You have to some see a special rare plant developed by Aperture and known only to Aperture! Oh man alive, it's a downright beautiful flower!" Wheatley grinned childishly leading her down a narrow pathway.

"Oh, and be careful, love. Some of these plants aren't quite…um…human friendly. They…they don't take well to human's touching them. Quite remarkable really…although…not for those who touch them…no…not pretty at all…" he seemed to go off in his own world for a moment before snapping back, "Anyway, I'll warn you if you step too close to one, alright, love?" Chell nodded as they went further into the controlled jungle.

The girl laid eyes on many different plants. Some she remembered from her childhood, others she had never seen at all, even in books.

"There it is, love." she looked up to see a small potted plant sitting in a window. It was a lone white flower with pink tips and vibrant green lea-wait. A window!

Chell pressed her hands against it and felt joy fill her. It was a window!

If she could just break through it, she could escape easily! All that plotting and scheming and the answer was right here? She couldn't believe it!

"You haven't seen the outside in along time…have you…?" Wheatley's voice broke through to her. She turned with tears trying to break through.

He frowned sadly, "I'm sorry, love…but that is a simulation screen…see…" he pushed a small blue button that was right beside a yellow one. The daylight flipped off and turned into moonlight, equipped with twinkling stars and a partially cloud covered moon.

There had only been one other time Chell had been completely crushed. That was when Wheatley had betrayed her in GLaDOS' chamber. She had been so happy and full of hope and when he denied her freedom…it killed her inside. Just as this had. Here she was staring at what she had thought to be the outside, her chance at freedom, and it was just another trick to crush her!

That was the final straw. Hot tears spilled over her cheeks and anger filled her. Maybe Cave was right. She should just get mad and find some combustible lemons! She would burn the labs to the ground if she didn't get free soon!

She clenched her fists and teeth and tried to blink away the tears. They had never helped her before and she wasn't about to turn into some weak girl who cried at the drop of a hat. Chell felt intense pain in her palms, where her unkempt nails were now piercing the skin.

She felt hands press down on her shoulders, "Love…you okay?" then he frowned, obviously upset at himself, "No, of course not. Stupid question…stupid." He looked into her eyes with his deep aqua orbs. She couldn't take it anymore. She was beginning to wish she had just died down in old Aperture, or maybe she could force this dream to end and she would wake up in stasis. Or maybe if she just die.

Chell turned her head away Wheatley, stomping her foot lightly. Drying tears still streaked her face. Wheatley sighed, not really knowing how to cheer her up with out making things worse. His heart began to speed up as his eyes fell on her face, or more importantly her lips.

He felt his cheeks redden at the thought of kissing them with all he had, He instantly felt flushed for such a thought. Chell looked at him and he felt his heart stop. Wheatley reached forward to grab her to do just that, but she was suddenly yanked back, falling into a huge potted plant.

The plants vines had made their way around her wrists. Wheatley gasped, "Oh man!" he gripped the vines and tried to pry her loose. "Just stay calm, I'll think of a way to get you out of here!" He continued his seemingly hopeless prying at the vines. After a few seconds of fighting with it, it let go of Chell…and completely wrapped itself around Wheatley.

Chell began to panic, not having any experience fighting homicidal plants. She moved forward to grab the plant, which was beginning to curl around his neck.

"No!" he gasped, "Go…get…he…p…" he pulled at the vine around his throat as Chell reluctantly turned to find a Nature Sphere Associate. She turned at hit something, falling painfully to her bottom. She looked up at a pale face framed with black hair. She would've said it was Flynn, but this man did not have pink eyes or glasses. His eyes were a light blue and his pupils very dilated.

In his hand was a spray bottle, which he used to spray the plant and Wheatley. The man then stood still as the plant fell away from the blue eyed accented man.

Chell grabbed Wheatley's arm and pulled him from the foliage. He gasped to catch her breath and rubbed at his wrists and throat.

"Now where is that rhubarb…" Chell turned to see Wheatley's savior walk right passed them and search for his rhubarb. Rhubarb? Wasn't that one of the thousands of ingredients the Logic Core said were in the cake?

"That's Login, he's a bloody brilliant cook, although you just have to look passed what he says…not really right, that one…he's also Flynn's bloody twin brother. They are both mad, though. Flynn is a know-it-all with information, where as Login knows everything there is to know about baking and plants."

Chell watched the man kneel down, finally finding the rhubarb. He continued muttering random things that apparently went onto the cake, some being completely inedible.

Wheatley gripped Chell's wrist, "We should probably get going before something else tries to kills us…" he flushed red quickly letting go of Chell.

They located Curi and Alex sitting on a marble bench, eating ice cream. The mute girl raised her brow, wondering where they had even gotten ice cream. It didn't take them long to spill their source.

"Guess what? Login bought me and Alex ice cream! You want some? It's good." Curi laughed, "I love strawberry! What's your favorite flavor? Do you prefer cones or bowls? OH! Do you like sprinkles? I love the rainbow kind, the sugar kind and the little nonpareil? Or are you the kind of person who likes ice cream on a stick? I don't like the ice cream on a stick 'cuz it falls off onto my dress and Glados get's mad at me for messing up my uniform. Don't you hate it when you get stains on your pretty clothes?"

Chell sat down and shook her head. The trip to the Nature Sphere had been a lot less relaxing than she thought. Well, a lot is a major understatement. She had almost been killed by a psycho plant, then Wheatley almost died. She met Flynn's brother, and the human Logic Personality Construct, who turned out to be just as odd as the robot she had known.

All she really wanted to do was crawl under the nearest bed and die. This hell was turning out to be worse than she had ever imagined hell. She supposed being in any other typical image of hell would be nothing to her.

She let her head fall into her hands, not even noticing Login come by to take Alex and Curi back to their respective Aperture employee apartments.

The girl just sat there, head throbbing in the pain brought on by too much thinking. After learning to think with portals, it seemed near impossible for her to think with anything else. She wanted out, and she wanted out NOW.

"Love?" Wheatley gently tapped her shoulder, "You should probably be getting back to the relaxation room soon…I have to get to work and She won't be happy with you wandering around without an escort…not to mention the bloody red buttons…those things are quite annoying, actually…pointless…mad…"

Chell frowned. Even her only friend she had in this hell didn't trust her to sit and think amongst the deadly foliage. She stood, trying to retain the dignity she knew she had lost years ago and walked almost robotically passed Wheatley. He followed behind her quickly, trying to keep up as they made their way towards the relaxation center.

"I'm sorry I messed everything up, love…I'm such a moron…" Chell turned to him and furrowed her brows. It wasn't like Wheatley at all to call himself a moron, especially since he was so adamant about NOT being one. She reached out and lightly smacked his forehead, saying to him in her way that he was not and that it wasn't his fault.

"We'll, see you later, love." he waved, smiling like a goof as he walked down the hall.

Chell closed the door and plopped on the bed, closing her eyes and sighing, hoping a nap would help her.

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><p>So? feedback and critique is well appreciated<p>

OH! I have Pics up of mah lovely human designs!

http : / sabaku-no-kurai . deviantart . com / (no spaces) quite a few pics up o.o so view if ya want lol

~Lady Pyrien


	5. Noises

Ok, I had a rough week, so I didn't really feel like reviewing over this chapter. Mistakes are possible and probable -_-. anyways, please enjoy!

EDIT: i edited it and added the breaks that disappear when I upload...once again sorry 'bout that

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><p>Chell awoke to an alarming sound in the halls. It sounded like metal clanging together. The girl slipped from her sheets and slowly made her way across the room and into the halls. 'Funny,' she thought. One would think that there would be alarms or something going off alerting someone that one of the test subject rooms was open. She shrugged it off and listened for the noise again. Instead she heard a voice from behind her.<p>

"You shouldn't be out of your room, love…" she whipped around to see Wheatley standing there. He was dressed a bit more casual than normal, in what he probably slept in, "I was woken up by the alert and I know you want out of here. Who doesn't'? but the thing is, if I could see you on my monitors, then I know she can see you. She doesn't trust me because I screw everything up…so please…just go back into your room, mate…"

Chell frowned, but turned to the vents again, where another loud metal clanging resounded.

Wheatley groaned, "Not him again…every bloody week he's always trying to make life that much harder for us…" he stomped off down the halls and Chell quickly followed after.

When she finally caught up, he was already in his office walking over to the small intercom.

"You had better have one hell of a good reason for not alerting someone that a test subject walked out of their room." Chell winced at the harshness of Glados' voice, and noticed Wheatley did too.

"Sorry, I was going to tell her to go back in, but-"

"NO 'buts' I told you if you messed up again I was going to…" she began.

"He's back…" Wheatley yelled, but his courage had gone just as soon as it had come, "Chell was only trying to figure out what was making those bloody noises and it was him…" he whispered.

Glados really did scare him, didn't she? Had her Wheatley been this scared to take on GLaDOS? He may not have made the best decisions, but she knew if he was determined, he could succeed. Even Chell knew that if the roof hadn't collapsed that night, she wouldn't have been able to defeat him. The place would have been destroyed, taking her down with it.

A sigh came from over the intercom, "I'll send BLUE and ORANGE to check it out…make her go back to her room now or you WILL regret it."

Wheatley turned to Chell with a smile on his face, "Well, love, we should be getting you back to your room." as they walked (rather slowly, Chell noted) back to her relaxation room.

"She's a bloody menace…" he muttered to Chell, "A maniac, if I ever saw one…" The quiet girl nodded, but had other things, more interesting to her than Glados' mental personality. She pointed to the ceiling, where the sounds were now mere echoes.

Wheatley raised his brow, "What?"

Chell rolled her eyes and cupped her ear, then pointed back at the ceiling. When he till gave her an odd look she shook her head, wishing for her notebook.

A loud crashing and mumbling came from the ceiling again and both of them looked up.

"Oh! You want to know who he is?" Chell nodded, "He's only one of the lose experiments…Back when we actually still tested in that whole bloody A.I. business, we…well not necessarily me, but you get the point, built a prototype. At first he seemed well enough, but one day he went absolutely mad!" Wheatley's arms shot out from his sides, "He apparently heard voices or something. Even after checking his system, no one could find any sign of what made him insane…Well…someone flippin' forgot to turn his sleep mode on and he was gone the next morning, somewhere out of sight."

Chell raised her brow, "He writes all over the walls and most of it is gibberish or makes no sense. Kind of sad really…Glados sometimes tends to forget he's here because other than the occasional missin' panels on the walls, he stay quiet. Though, some nights, like this one, he comes snoopin' though the Relaxation Centers and Vaults. He actually managed to wake up a few before we caught onto what he was doing."

The girl grinned. Something about it seemed familiar. Maybe he was the robotic form of the person who wrote all over the walls before. Those things saved her life and she was kind of sad she never actually met the person. It almost seemed if he was drawing her life story on the walls. The drawing of her fighting GLaDOS had been in the room where she found the blue portal gun.

She shook her head and opened her door to the room. Wheatley left her there as she shut the door behind her. Chell made her way to her bed and sat down, feeling the sleepiness, but not wanting to go to sleep just yet. She looked at the painted wall. This one was a three tone jungle scene of basic tree shapes and such in pale green light tan and another darker green.

Suddenly the small panels began to open just above the mini fridge in the room. Chell jumped back in surprise as a small robot poked its head out if the hole. It had two small pale blue optics and dented black and dark grey metal casing. He looked completely different than the A.I. cores she knew. In his hands he held a small companion cube. Chell raised her brows. It wasn't completely one, though. It was just a mini cube this Aperture used with a pink heart messily painted onto one of the sides.

The robot glanced up and his optics widened, "You! Finally? I've been through several rooms just trying to find you…"

She stepped away from him. If what Wheatley said was true, then he was unstable and insane…as insane as robots got…which…they could get pretty messed up.

"I'm what they call the Rattbott…" Chell had enough of dealing with A.I. in her past, she knew better than to trust them. Her hand shot out to hit a small emergency button on her bedside table.

"Please…don't call them…I'll be shut down if they catch me…I just want to talk to you since she can no longer keep an eye on you in here…I disabled the camera in here…" Chell looked at the small camera and noticed the little red light was no longer blinking. Her eyes drifted back to the little bot. He seemed to fidget and his optics darted around uneasily.

The girl sighed and crossed her arms, waiting for him to speak.

"I know you're not from here, everyone knows it…but that awful woman…she's planning something awful…she's going to kill you and try to find a way in-" foot steps were heard coming through the halls and Rattbott squealed in surprise and fear, "I have to go!" he shut the panels and disappeared back into the ceiling.

'So far…the weirdest encounter I've had, yet…' Chell closed her eyes and her head hit the pillow. She didn't think it such a surprise that Glados would want her dead. So far all the woman could gather from testing her was that she could fall from heights and that no test was too difficult. How could they be when she made her way through things way worse then a simple testing room.

It also brought up an idea that Chell had been wondering time and time again, did this Aperture have the repulsion and propulsion gels? Obviously they had the final one, else portals wouldn't really work here…

A sigh escaped her and she rubbed her face, staying on her bed silently as the girls dressed in white, like turrets, searched her room for the little robot. When they finally gave up, she was allowed to go back to her misery.

XXAPERTUREXX

If GLaDOS were human, she would be grinning like a Cheshire cat. Almost every human in that huge vault was a perfect specimen. All she had to do was thaw them out, give them a few days in the relaxation vault, building up their strength and they would be ready for testing.

She scanned down the lines, looking for a perfect starter. "Raymond, no…Quentin…no, not him either…Heather….hmm…how about you?" she used her pincers to grab the cryo pod of a young girl.

"Let's see. Timid, works well under pressure, knows how to get her hands dirty…we'll see how well…" she inserted the pod of the girl who was no older than ten, into the relaxation pod. She connected a few wires to the pod and began the process of getting the girl out of the frozen state.

According to the girl's profile, she was the daughter of one of the men who had been on the mechanic crew. She had been one of the girls who had been at Aperture the day GLaDOS had been switched on.

The A.I. laughed softly, yet malice filled the noise. So this girl was technically the same age as the pest?

GLaDOS turned to Heather and noticed her slump in the pod once the process of waking her was complete.

The girl opened her eyes and pressed her hands up against the glass looking through, into the glass box she was in. GLaDOS opened the pod via wires, letting the naked, and now freezing girl, fall to the floor. She shivered and began crying.

GLaDOS opened the panel on the wall, revealing a set of Aperture test subject clothing.

"Welcome to Aperture Science," the A.I. said as the girl put on the clothes in attempt to get warm. The girl froze, seeming as if she recognized the voice.

GLaDOS chuckled to herself, this was going to be fun and highly informative.

XXAPERTUREXX

Chell woke the next day with a slight headache. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and glanced at the little clock on the bedside table. It was almost noon. Not only had she missed breakfast with Wheatley and the rest of the group, but she was supposed to have been in Glados' testing chambers two hours ago.

The test subject rose from the bed and stretched. Glados would probably be beyond angry, but if anything it was her fault for having let that robot loose in the facility. She knew it wasn't on purpose, but still shouldn't she have been able to catch him by now?

She quickly showered and donned the orange jumpsuit, wishing she didn't have to, tied her hair up and grabbed her long-fall boots. The girl stared at the sleek black and white boots for awhile, wondering if Glados was still after their secret. She most likely was. Every time Chell was near the woman she seemed to find something new and fascinating about her and 'her Aperture' as Glados so plainly put it. The woman was mad in Chell's opinion.

How can someone who had been using portals her entire life without any issues, even when the guns she used were tossed, dropped and even thrown into the incinerator. They had never malfunctioned, so what made now any different? How could it have ripped a hole in the space time thingy and send her into a world almost opposite her own?

It just didn't seem possible. Yet…portals were possible as well as things like teleportation and 'pouring a man into a computer'. GLaDOS was an example of that.

And if this really was happening, that Chell managed to find a mirror world, how did she do it and how was she going to get back? Then it hit her. Did she even want to go back?

Glados may also be a science happy nut like GLaDOS, but at least the woman let Chell sleep and eat. She let Chell have most of the day off and spend it with people she could someday consider friends. Crude remarks were kept at minimum and the crazy woman never threatened to kill her.

That was so much more than could be said of the A.I. So what if she had to do a test or three? At least she was free…well as free as one with Wheatley for an escort could be…to roam about the facility and rest when she needed it.

Chell grinned to herself as she left the room to go find Wheatley in his office. If she just made the best of her situation…shouldn't things essentially be fine for her now?

Wheatley yawned looking at his monitors. Chell hadn't answered his usual breakfast call, so he was forced to eat in his office, making sure she didn't sneak out. Honestly, he wouldn't mind if the girl escaped. He had seen the fear and hopeless look in her eyes too many time to count and it always tore him up to see the tortured spirit she housed.

It was almost lunch time now, and the girl still had not emerged from her room. The man was actually beginning to get a bit worried. What if he had upset her last night trying to get her to go back to her room? What if she had sneaked away when he was sleeping? The alarms were always set when he slept, but did he forget to turn them on? No, he had set them. So was she just not coming out?

"Hey, Moron," he frowned turning to the speaker/camera, "she's an hour late. You didn't kill her with your incessant talking did you? Or get her killed with one of your half brained schemes?"

"No, I did not…" he muttered angrily, "she just hasn't come out of her room, yet, nor will she answer me…and I'm not a moron…"

Glados sighed over the speaker and spoke again with a strict firmness in her voice, "I swear if you lose her I will kill you. I have big plans and I won't allow you to muck them up with your stupidity. I don't need her today, not anymore, so just…do whatever it is you two do when you're not annoying me." her speaker cut out, signaling to the man that she was through speaking to him.

He sighed and pushed his glasses up on his nose and turned back to the monitor. The door opened and Chell was walking out.

Relief washed over him and he rose from his desk, flipping the auto-alert on in case any of the other doors opened in his absence.

Chell smiled happily walking down the hall. She met up with Wheatley, who instantly greeted her with relief.

"I thought you were mad at me or something, love," he grinned sheepishly, "or maybe you had run off. But what's the worst that could happen to you in that room of yours…oh…wait…I just thought of something…" he frowned, "Oohh, I just thought of something else…how about I just stop thinking about it?" he chuckled lightly, reminding Chell of a more happier time in her old Aperture.

She nodded and kept walking. Her stomach growled and turned in a violent manner, causing the girl to blush. Wheatley only laughed, "It seems you're hungry, mate…well you did miss breakfast so we should probably get some lunch."

Chell smiled and they made their way to the partially empty café. Lunch time was usually pretty empty since most of the workers just ate at different times or whenever they got the chance throughout the day.

The girl grabbed a sandwich and juice, along with an apple. She took her usual place at the far table, where Flynn was already sitting. He had a thick book in his hands and was reading over it quietly.

"Did you know that coal put under pressure is turned in to diamonds?" he muttered to Chell as she seated herself. She nodded and smiled, "did you know diamonds put under pressure turn into foam peanuts, usually used for packaging?"

This threw Chell for a loop. She grinned and shook her had lightly. Wheatley sat down and sighed softly, taking a drink from his soda, " 'Ello, Flynn." he muttered, "how has your day been, mate?"

"Fact: My day has been completely boring. I spent this morning in the garden with Logan who spent his morning talking to the plants. Talking to plants increases their growth rate. Fact: Logan is insane. Fact: I have more friends than him. Fact:…" he continued in his fact rabbit hole, finally ending when Rick showed up.

"Hey, pretty lady," he flashed her a smile, "I was just looking for ya." he sat down. Chell raised her eye brow and tilted her head.

"I was wonderin' if you'd like to get outta here, leave these guys behind and have little adventure with me…" he raised his brow, grinning.

Chell felt her face heat up and she just stared back wide eyed.

"Fact: Rick is annoying and will never 'get lucky'." Flynn looked at him.

Rick glared, "I don't give a rat's ass about your little 'facts'! None of them even make any sense!" he turned back to Chell, "So whadya say, little lady?"

The girl had nothing better to do. Wheatley had told her she wasn't needed for testing until the next day and as long as she wasn't going to be strangled by killer plant life, she didn't see anything wrong with it. Besides, Wheatley would have to go, too, so she wouldn't feel too odd about exploring the facility.

She nodded happily. After lunch was finished, Flynn left the cafeteria to find something better to do.

Rick stood, "We should probably get goin' now, sweet heart," he bowed lightly and tipped his hat.

Chell looked back and grabbed Wheatley's hand, noticing the upset look on his face she smiled and he got up to go with them.

"Aw, come on little lady, you can't be serious about bringing that boring ol' pencil neck…"

The girl shot him a glare and he frowned, obviously not happy with the extra companion she brought along, but didn't want her upset or mad at him, so he dropped it.

The tree spent the next hour just trying to find whatever it was Rick was wanting to show her. Wheatley began complaining about the long walk through the west wings and Rick only laughed about him not getting enough adventure in his life.

"You gotta take life by the horns and throw it to your side! Make it beg for mercy and get a big laugh later! Life isn't meant to be spent cooped up in a small office or anything like that...sometimes you just gotta go for the gold and not settle for silver!" Rick exclaimed happily, his green eyes were shining with pure 'golden' enthusiasm.

"Too much adventure will get you killed, you know..." Wheatley sighed and crossed his arms, "Besides, I'm content with that office because I actually have mates that talk to me, un like you..."

Rick then backfired and the fighting ensued.

Chell began to regret her decision to go along. She was getting a headache from listening to the two fight and argue over little things like walking and running. She rubbed her temples and sighed looking up when Rick suddenly stopped.

"We're here, just a little bit of climbing and we'll be set…" he walked over to a busted air vent on the lower part of the wall. His finger maneuvered under the metal and pulled it out, "There ya go, ladies first," he looked at Wheatley.

The blue eyed man glared, "I'm more of a man than you'll ever be, you arse…" Chell rolled her eyes and slipped into the vent and fell the five feet down. Wheatley followed soon after and Rick came in last.

It was no ordinary vent system. Instead, it was much like Aperture for her when she first woke up to Wheatley's begging her to get up. There was mud and dirt caked on the bottom with water in various puddles and streams around that. There was some lighting, probably something Rick had put up, since they seemed to just be battery run lanterns.

"This way…" he grinned leading them down one way. Chell took notice of the little bit of plant life that was growing in the dimly lit area, mostly ferns and mushrooms and things that survived in the dark and muggy hall.

"Where are we, mate?" Wheatley asked quietly, almost as if her were afraid to be answered.

"Some abandoned rooms of the facility I discovered months ago. Thought it was pretty cool so I kept coming back. Turns out it makes a pretty great place to just hang out and explore."

Chell touched the broken bits of wall and sighed. "You okay, love?" the girl nodded and smiled. He didn't seem completely happy with her answer, but dropped it anyway as they entered the main room. It was a simple room with a few filing cabinets lining the walls. A desk held an old computer and phone.

In the corner was a small white camera with a red light blinking and watching their every movement. Rick must've seen her looking, "Yeah, after my first few times going down into these rooms, Glados had those put in to watch over me down here. That woman don't know how to keep to her own business to save her life." he dropped himself onto a big cushy looking couch, "so pretty lady, you like? How 'bout you pop a squat on Rick's lap?" he patted his knee. Chell grinned and shook her head, opting to look around the old room instead. An older poster on the wall caught her attention. It was strange to her.

It showed an image of the A.I. that Glados had in that room. 'She' was hanging from the ceiling in the same manner as GLaDOS did. The machine had a pincer hanging from the ceiling with Glados shaking it, like it was a hand.

"Science is the future!" was scrawled in fading letters above the image, "The future starts with Aperture Laboratories!" beneath it.

'This must be an older level from when they were starting up that A.I…' Chell thought to herself, running her fingers over the robot's picture. If this really was some dimension…didn't that mean this thing was herself? So she was a robot in this world?

She frowned, stepping back. If that were the case…wouldn't it make sense for her to try and get herself into a living state? It wasn't really fair that they created a living (so to speak) thing and then take the very life away.

Chell turned away from the poster and walked over to the filing cabinets. There was mostly dusty old notes on CHELL's behavior and resistance to testing. Apparently, CHELL didn't necessarily play well with Glados, the two usually ending up in disagreements, which to everyone else, was odd behavior for something they programmed.

Something Chell knew alot about. She and GLaDOS didn't play well together either. Well, excepting the part where GLaDOS was POTaDOS and needed Chell to help take downa power mad Wheatley, of course.

CHELL, on her third start up, refused to talk to anyone who approached her, especially Glados. Being non-responsive, they turned her off for the final time.

'Hmm…that's why?' Chell sighed and shoved the file back into the slot and continued searching through the cabinet, finding more notes on other things this Aperture had been through over the past several decades.

This was something Chell found exciting. When she had first fallen into Old Aperture, she had been greatly displeased. Not only was she in a place that hadn't been seen by human eyes in forever, she was down there alone with who-knows-what experiments. But as she walked the ruined halls and heard that deep voice echoing over the intercom, she felt proud that she was the first to see these things in decades, maybe even centuries.

Each room was a blast into a past long forgotten. Even GLaDOS had no idea anything down there was even there. She even learned a lot about herself, including the whole Caroline thing. It gave Chell a newfound love of history, well…more or less the history no one cared about anymore.

Even when she came across the busted door behind the boxes, discovering something (more or less) that they took extra care to hide, made the little trip into the past worth it.

Chell found an old printout from the first few days from this Aperture. It held an old login and password to some site. Chell frowned and walked over to the old computer. It had actually been a long time since she had ever used a computer. Being a test subject meant the only computer she had to deal with was GLaDOS.

Easily finding the startup button, Chell got the old machine at least turned on. It whirred and made odd noises.

"What are you up to, love?" Wheatley, who had previously walking around looking at the posters and such, walked up behind her.

Chell held out the paper and he looked over it, "I see, but…don't you think this may be a bit dated…I mean…it was from fifteen years ago…"

Chell sighed and looked at the screen, which had finally decided to light up. She scanned over the desktop, seeing the simple things like a recycling bin and word processor. Nothing really stood out to her…except…

She double clicked the icon that said 'Lawsuit 200-'

It turned out to be a folder filled with newspaper articles and notes about some lawsuit back in the years passed. It wasn't exactly the past Chell was interested in, but the information was just as good.

The girl clicked on the earliest article: 'Today, May (the rest of the date had been colored over), Aperture Laboratories in being sued for faulty items. It seems as though the Anti-Theft mechanisms they created were backfiring on the people who bought them. They would lock the owners inside their homes and issue a gas, that in small doses only knocks what would have been the potential burglar out. These devices made it nearly impossible to rescue trapped victims, who were beginning to suffer from lack of nutrition, brain damage, and much more. Sources tell that Aperture had refused any direct contact with any news station."

Chell shook her head. Those little devices sound just like GLaDOS. Locking away innocent people and trying to kill them and force them into testing.

She opened the next one and scanned over the interior, only to find out Aperture lost all of their money to the victims who won the case.

The next one stated that Aperture Labs had gone underground. Literally. They apparently closed off the main above ground building, trapping all employees underground, testing all their products a hundred times over before even attempting to mass produce and sell.

Glados had apparently been scarred by being called a disgrace to science and technology and became obsessed with proving she was a better scientist that any one else, meaning she began testing everything and everyone more and more.

There weren't too many things on Aperture after that, mostly just little bits about how failed the CHELL was.

"You see, love?" Wheatley whispered, "She won't let anyone leave…" Chell nodded. She saw. She knew better than they thought she did. But at least you could turn off a computer. Glados was a different story. She knew the way they worked and knew as long as she was in her office and surrounded by her turret like women and her neurotoxins, no one would dare face her.

Chell quickly brought up a word processor and tapped away at the little keyboard, 'hasn't anyone tried to escape?'

This earned a chuckle, "Where do you think she gets those few test subjects I'm forced to watch over? Poor guys…those blokes never stood a chance…"

'what about you? Would you ever try?' Chell watched Wheatley's expression sadden a little, but bounce right back to smiling.

"Of course I would! I know exactly where to go, too, love." he grinned. The silently groaned. If he so much as mentioned the escape pods and the breaker room, she would chase him with a discouragement beam until he keeled over in exhaustion.

"You plannin' somethin' foolish over there?" Rick frowned lifting his hat from his face. He had apparently grown bored of Chell's disinterest in him and fallen asleep, " 'cuz you do know she is watching you?" his green eyes darted to the camera in the corner.

Chell had completely forgotten the device had been there. Could she hear with those things? Better yet, was that particular one equipped with a microphone? If not, this could be the best place to get away and just talk to Wheatley…or let him talk.

She didn't particularly want to escape anymore…hell, she had it pretty good here compared to her old life, but still being watched and listened to was enough to drive someone mad, especially Wheatley who feared that Glados was going to kill him at any moment.

This could be the perfect place to let him talk and they could probably even bring the others down here as well.

After another hour of just talking about mindless things, Chell got an odd itch to ask something she had on her mind. It wasn't truly important, but it was there none the less.

'have you heard of propulsion and repulsion gels?' her fingers had barely finished before Wheatley began laughing.

"Of course, but those were deemed too dangerous for public use and were sealed off in the un-used wing, love. It's been years since someone's mentioned those old things…but how…how do you know about 'em?"

Chell sighed, 'I was forced to use them before, I was just wondering…'

Wheatley nodded, "I see, well, we should probably be heading back now, Alex and Curi are probably waiting for us in the break room and that bloody kid will most likely end up purging Flynn and/or the vending machines…whichever insults space first…"

Rick laughed and nodded, leaving Chell confused as to how a vending machine could insult space. The entrance came a little quicker than the room had and Chell frowned, not knowing how she was going to make it up there. If she had her portal gun, it would be simple, but here she was…portal-less.

The tall, muscular man beside her grinned and picked her up, gripping her tightly as he lifted her to the broken vent opening. Chell quickly climbed through, feeling quite displeased when she noticed him pull a large box from the corner for him and Wheatley to use to get out. Why hadn't he just done that instead for her?

She spent the rest of the walk back ignoring both of the boys. Chell almost celebrated seeing Flynn and Alex sitting at the usual table in the back of the room. She slipped in a seat beside them and dropped her head on the table.

"Fact: Rick is a blowhard, and a coward." Flynn lazily glanced up at Rick who had just walked in talking about how Wheatley should start working out more or taking on rigorous adventures like he did. He shot the human fact sphere a dirty look and sat down.

"What's wrong, Chell? Are you sick? I got sick once. I didn't like it? Do you have a fever? Are you going to spread it to us?" Curi squeaked. Chell smiled as best she could and shook her head, seeing the relief instantly take over the orange eyed girl.

The rest of the night was uneventful until Chell made it back to her room, where Glados' voice greeted her.

"I may not be able to hear what was being said in that room, but I do however, know that you stumbled upon some interesting information…don't think to much into it…in fact…why don't you go ahead and not think about it at all? In case you are wondering, that is NOT a suggestion. Forget those articles or there will be tragic consequences." her voice faded, leaving Chell with the familiar feeling she usually got when GLaDOS threatened her with death.

Chell sunk into the sheets, intent on not giving Glados any response. She may not truly care about what had aspired between the world and Aperture, but she definitely needed rest if she was going to confront Glados about something else she had in mind. In only took minutes for the girl to fall into a dreamless sleep.

XXAPERTUREXX

GLaDOS felt her circuits grow hot at the pure disappointment for her new little test subject. The girl was able to pass the basic course with no problems, but even with promises of cake, the girl refused to think with portals. She kept trying to jump to grab a cube on a ledge and got frustrated when she couldn't get over a pit to the door way.

The supercomputer shook her core and led the girl back to the vault, where she would keep her until she decided a better use for her. After her little display in the testing track, the girl would be lucky if GLaDOS didn't decide to thrown her into the incinerator.

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><p>hope it was good for you guys~!<p>

~Lady Pyrien


	6. The Cake is Served

I have been having troubles when I upload chapters. Apparently the breaks between Chell and GLaDOS on my chapter was not showing up. Well now it's fixed ^_^ so I hope you guys really enjoy the chapters now

Just a little edit:: Melody is Mel. Mel was the scrapped Co-op partner that Chell was supposed to be with for Co-op in Portal 2...she's not my OC and she's supposed to be in a blue jumpsuit. Just a little heads up because I don't want you guys thinking i'm favoring an OC by giving her a blue jumpsuit -_- anyways she's called Mel in the next chapter, so hopefully more people will recognize her T^T

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><p>When Chell walked into the lab the next after noon, she noticed that Glados was standing at the monitor and Penny and Atlas were no where to be found. That was unusual since they were always standing around somewhere playing with new devices and testing things like that.<p>

Chell walked up behind the woman and gasped lightly. She could see Atlas standing over a pit wearing a white suit with blue markings all over it, as well as a pair of what looked like long fall boots. In his hands was a portal device with blue stripes down the front. His glare was intense as he watched Penny drop down through an endless portal tunnel that passed through a grill.

He turned quickly and shot a pale blue portal on a slanted surface, launching the girl through the air. She wore a matching white and orange outfit, with an orange striped portal gun. Penny turned and shot a red portal on the wall and focused on landing on the ledge that had previously been out of reach.

Chell bit her lip seeing that Atlas needed to hurry and catch her using a red button that would lift a grate, extending the edge a little further. He began to panic as he searched for it. His eyes widened in horror as Penny fell into the pit.

"Penny!" he screamed running to the edge. He obviously didn't see her, so he began to hit the ground with his fists, angry that he let her fall.

"Atlas?" she walked out of the portal she had thrown a few minutes prior, waving lightly at him. Atlas' eyes darted to her and he leapt to his feet, throwing his arms around her tightly.

"You're okay!"

Penny laughed lightly and patted his back, "I'm fine. The boots work wonderfully and I was glad I had thrown the portal before hand…there was portable surface down there…"

They re-did the test, this time not messing up once.

"Good, it seems this Cooperative testing was good idea…and a great way to test those boots…" Glados turned to Chell, "Yes, after much studying, I was able to recreate those boots of yours, possibly making them better in the process…time will tell, of course." she began walking to the door where Atlas and Penny came wandering in. Atlas still looked a little shaken up, but he was still laughing and joking with Penny, happily.

"Well, it's time we tested something else, since we've actually created those boots and now people won't die or become severely injured…" Chell followed silently.

The woman led her to the testing doors, "Get going, the ASHPD is already waiting for you in the testing chamber."

Glados opened the door and sent Chell through. The girl sighed, wondering what in the world could need the boots to be tested.

The scientist watched her test subject walk through the doors and smiled, "Thanks to this girl, we have advanced our science further than we could have imagined. Think of all the science we've accomplished just these past two weeks!" Atlas and Penny looked up at her, "because she fell into my lap, I've been able to recreate those boots, allowing us to test our portal technology as well as everything else! But you see, with those boots now in my possession…I no longer need the girl…in fact…she's actually a danger to me now…" Glados was no longer talking to her little co-op test subjects.

Chell stepped into the room and sure enough the portal device was sitting on an elevated panel. She gripped it tightly and the panel dropped back into place in the floor. She grinned walking into the room. This test was also one she'd done before. It was the very first excursion funnel test Wheatley had her do. The girl jumped into the funnel and began riding up. So this was it? The funnels were what she needed tested? Chell slid from the funnel to the ground and went to work completing the test.

Glados watched and her brow rose slightly. This girl knew exactly how to use the funnel. She really did have to learn more about where this girl came from. If a simple test subject was already familiar with those boots, the portal device and things like the discouragement beam, hard light bridges and funnels…how far along in science was her Aperture?

The woman turned and started tapping away furiously at her keyboard, trying to locate the files from when the handheld portal gun was being developed. It was true that the gun used to be a lot bigger and bulkier. It was also harder to use. It wasn't until several months ago they began to take the components and compress them into something easier to carry through the very portals they made. It was a long and difficult process, but seemingly worth it in the long run. How easy would it be for the military to be able to shoot portals against their enemies? You could twist ad confuse them, even sneak up behind them.

Then think of all the commercial marketing for the public? Need to get to your kids room quickly? It would be perfect for mass producing her blue device and portal doors. A portal door where ever you need it and then it would be simple to get to a crying child in an instant! Black Mesa wouldn't stand a chance!

But with everything Aperture made, there were always bugs that needed to be pressed out. And one of the biggest problems they had were disappearing test subjects. If her theory was correct, and somehow crossing the orange and blue portals as they hit, rather than keeping them separate, was the cause of sending these people to another dimension, then she could manage to harness this power and use it…If she could do that…She looked up as a small buzzer let her know the girl had pressed the button and was walking towards the door. Her eyes narrowed lightly.

People that were already familiar with funnels and bridges who were ready for the next step!

She turned away from the screen, having already pressed the elevator button, and began working on a list of things she was going to be needing soon. It wasn't a very long list, but it was an important one to her. Glados' head snapped up in the direction of her door as it opened.

Chell stepped into the room and yawned lightly, showing her attitude about how easy the test was. This behavior was one thing Glados hated most about the girl. She always managed to find a way to mock her in the testing. If the girl found them so easy…perhaps it was time to make them harder…

The scientist woman turned and smiled with mock happiness to see the girl, "I want to ask you a few questions…" Chell frowned but sat down where Penny set her pen and paper. She drummed impatiently on the desk and looked up, obviously hoping this wouldn't take long and she could go do whatever it was she did when she was not mocking the difficulty of the tests.

"First, why didn't you tell me you were already acquainted with the excursion funnels? I would have tested something else…"

The girl shrugged, 'I guess it didn't really matter to me if you knew or not…I didn't know you even had that technology.'

A vein popped for Glados and she glared lightly. This girl dared mock this Aperture?

"What other technologies does your Aperture possess?"

'Well,' Chell thought for a second, 'Turrets, aerial faith plates…' Chell frowned, not really caring to list anything else.

"What is an Aerial Faith Plate?" Glados frowned. It sounded odd, yet intriguing. But there had to be more that the girl wasn't saying. There just had to be more…

'A device in the ground that launched whatever it touched into the air. It worked great on turrets, cubes and me.'

"Turrets? Like a gun?" the woman raised her brow, thinking of the rotating machine guns used by military.

'Sort of…' Chell began sketching a crappy version of what looked like an egg with wings and one eyes that had a sharp stick in it. It had three legs and Chell even added the words "Are you still there?" and "Sentry mode activated" above it.

Glados nodded. It seemed as though even the guards were A.I. or at least robot. 'Funny, too, they even look similar to my guards…' she glanced up at the white clad woman guarding her vault. It must be a very interesting world, to say the least. The technology had the potential to be even better than anything she could have imagined. And if funnels and hard light were old news to the test subject before her, but barely in testing stage for Glados…The woman shook her head, trying to get back on track again.

Chell leaned back in the chair and began writing down more and more of their quotes, "I don't blame you," "I don't hate you," "I'm different!"

"Wait…" Glados glared down at the last one she wrote, "Did they all say this?" Her finger tapped the quote. She felt a twinge of anger bubble up in the back of her mind, but she pushed it away.

Chell shook her head, 'Only one,'.

"What happened to it?" her voice came out slow, with a ton of controlled emotion.

'I found her in the redemption line…she said she was different, so I picked her up…she then told me a lot of things that made no sense until later…I actually have no idea what happened to her, because I was forced to leave her on the cat walks…' Chell frowned.

Glados glared down at the paper and picked it up, folding it neatly, "Well, I guess that will be all I'll need from you today, so unless you're ready for more testing…" in all honesty, Glados wanted to toss the girl headfirst into the co-op testing track alone so that she could watch her fail.

Chell hurriedly began scrawling out a few words on another sheet of paper, 'Have you ever thought of turning that A.I. back online? I grew up around enough robots to know they do feel pain and fear, albeit simulated. It just seems unfair to let something you created suffer because she didn't work properly…who knows…maybe she'll work this time?'

The girl didn't honestly know why she would be begging for a potential enemy to be brought back online, but if that A.I. was her counterpart, then it was the least she could do, right?

The scientist woman let out a low laughter, almost mocking, but the noise faded and left behind an odd look on Glados' face. She waved her hand dismissing Chell, and walked off to a computer.

Chell rose from the seat and went to the door where Wheatley would most likely be waiting for her. As predicted the British man was leaning against the wall, staring up at the ceiling smiling about who-knows-what. There was something perfectly innocent about his face. He always seemed so oblivious to how hard life could really be and Chell was envious.

A.I. Wheatley had always been so sure of what he was doing and even when he was wrong, he didn't let it get him down. It wasn't until the very end she saw any form of regret or anything. Before he was corrupt, he was an amazing person to be around, always hopeful and looking at life as it came to him.

She could never be like that. It was sewn into her brain that she had to think fast and worry about everything she did. If that portal was thrown there and she had to go here, where would it take her? One wrong move meant certain death. Every option had to be weighed and only one or two would allow her to keep living. That's why she envied him so much.

His bright blue orbs turned to her and a goofy smile spread across his face, " 'Ello, love," he bowed lightly, causing Chell to giggle silently.

Wheatley grinned and the two began walking to the lunch room.

xXAPERTUREXx

GLaDOS stared down at the current test results. The girl, Heather, was still refusing to do the test. It was uncommonly easy and this annoyed the computer. She severely disliked when test subjects refused to do what they were designed for. Her golden yellow optic turned away as she moved the current test room towards the incinerator room. Suddenly the room took a right turn on the rails instead on going forward, taking the room to the relaxation center.

The optic narrowed and a male's voice echoed above her. "Caroline deleted."

GLaDOS let low a growl that faded into a sigh.

"I may not be able to delete you, but you will not interfere in my testing…" GLaDOS continued taking the girl to the newly rebuilt relaxation rooms.

XxCombustible LemonsXx

"What are you doing, ma'am?" Penny looked up from her orange striped portal device to see her teacher pacing the lab. Glados was thinking hard about something, and usually it was best to just leave her alone to her thoughts, but this time…Penny couldn't shake this feeling she had. She felt something was going to happen soon. This behavior only came out when Glados was stumped by something. And when Glados was stumped, bad things happened and people got hurt…namely those who bothered her or made things worse.

Atlas frowned, "She's probably thinking about some new tests to throw that girl, Chell through. You know how test happy Glados is…"

Penny nodded, but looked up again. The scientist was obviously distraught, trying to think of something. And Atlas was probably right…it could've been the girl. Ever since she showed up things had been going down hill with Glados. So what if they now had the long fall technology now? Her mentor was obviously suffering because the test subject yawned at everything she threw. Personally Penny believed it was just the girl was smart, but Glados kept muttering to herself about advanced technology. The orange haired girl sighed turning back to her device.

"Don't stress yourself over it, Penny…" he rested his hand on hers to get her attention back on the project they were playing with. She turned back to him and he blushed deeply, pulling his hand away.

Penny grinned and picked up her portal device to start cleaning the casing, "Smooth…" she whispered to him.

Atlas glared, "Shut up…"

"I'm just saying…" she smiled at him. He obviously didn't get that she was just teasing, because he frowned and stood up, shocking Penny with his next words.

"You're always so rude, you know that?" he crossed his arms and glared, with a slight blush on his cheeks.

Penny's brow furrowed, "You're one to talk…you know what you sound like?" she stood up, "…" she just glared underneath her bangs and crossed her arms, "That's you! You are a huge anti-social…thing!"

The blue haired teen glared, "At least I don't cry over every little thing! 'Hi, I'm Penny and rainbows make me cry!'" he mocked her, holding his hands up to his face.

Penny growled, "I don't sound like that!"

"You do too!" the doors opened and Glados walked in, "Are you two ready for the second round of cooperative testing? Of course you are. Go. Before I make you wish you were dead."

Penny shot a glare at Atlas, before grabbing her device and storming towards the doors that led down into the testing chambers. Atlas ignored it, making sure his boots were on right, before following after her.

"What is going on with those two…?" She shook her head and opened the chamber doors. While they were busy doing a few simple tests, she was going to do a little more studying on a special topic she had sudden interest in.

It was only five minutes into her studying when she heard the young girl scream out in terror, then a long stream of insults came next. Glados groaned, having been interrupted in her studies.

"Are they finally failing these tests?" Glados turned on the monitor and rewound the tape to see what had gone on. Apparently, Penny had insulted Atlas as he was carrying her in the excursion funnel. He didn't take to kindly and dropped the portal spot holding the funnel two panels down. She didn't get hurt, but the fall was enough to shake her up.

Glados found it odd. The two never fought. As long as she had known them, they were inseparable and always got along. When their parents had worked here, she remembered the two children. Both extremely shy and reserved. They soon grew out of that and had been inseparable.

"In seems I put my faith into the wrong set of co-op partners. If I knew you were going to be this bad at doing these tests together I would have just thrown the moron and that test subject in here instead." she spoke into the microphone.

This caught the two's attention. Both thoroughly enjoyed getting to test the equipment. To them it was an awesome experience and always blast.

Atlas sighed and shook his head, before carefully moving the excursion funnel up slowly, as to not let Penny fall. She was currently pressed up against a ledge and couldn't quite pull herself up yet. Once at the top on the ledge she threw the portal on the wall that would allow Atlas to make it to the exit door with her.

Glados shook her head. Maybe she would figure out what it took to really get those two to distrust each other. It seemed they didn't work well together when faced with anger towards each other. Maybe this was just what the co-op testing needed. She wanted to figure out how far she could push this friendship until it burst, leaving her with real results on cooperation.

She watched them enter a new test chamber, a simple one that included emancipation grills and a cube.

"You know, BLUE, it appears ORANGE doesn't trust you, now does she? What a shame…because I trust you…" Penny's face twisted in hurt, where as Atlas grinned and began shooting the portals he would need to complete the test.

Penny sighed and crossed through the emancipation grill to the other side. She saw what needed to be done and began working.

Glados laughed to herself.

xxxxxxx

Chell bit into the jell-o she had grabbed. She was busy listening to Logan talk to Flynn. It was the first time she had seen the twins side by side. They had the same haircut, but Flynn's was neatly brushed out of his face, where as Logan's was messy and in his face. Flynn wore glasses and had pink eyes, versus Logan's blue, yet dilated eyes.

"Any way. Logan has invited the few of you to come and try some of his new recipes.' Flynn muttered. The blue eyed boy stood and walked away.

"That sounds like fun! Can we go, Alex? Will it be fun? Of course, Logan is the best cook! Will he serve those cookies I like? What about drinks? Should I bring my own? Oh! Did he make that cake?" Curi was jumping up and down in her seat in excitement. Listing her favorite sweets.

Alex, on the other hand, was busy coloring in a children's coloring book. To him, stars were blue, pink, green and orange. The moon was purple and had glitter around the edges. Chell laughed lightly to herself. He was so innocent and childlike. It amazed her.

Chell looked up, though, to Curi. Cake? Part of her wondered if it was the same cake she had been promised. It was Logic Core who knew the recipe, was it not? She bit her lip.

"You want to go, love?" Wheatley asked after taking a sip from his drink, "He really is bloody brilliant at cooking! Those cookies are to die for, I mean…not to say that you die from eating them, but they…oh…you get the point?"

She smiled and nodded. Truth was, she really did want to go, especially if the cake would be there. The girl laughed inwardly wanting to eat the cake in front of GLaDOS and laugh at her. It would be a part of her own little bit of defiance and revenge. Deny her cake and she'll stuff her face with it while laughing at you!

Her blue grey eyes drifted up and met blood red ones. They belonged to a pale faced man, framed with spiked, short dark red hair. He wore a uniform, similar to that of the rest of her friends, yet this one was disheveled, as if he had pulled at the clothes himself. Instead of white gloves, he wore fingerless black ones. His arms were crossed as he stared down Chell. Something about him seemed familiar, but off setting, like she'd prefer not to know. She squirmed in her seat, uncomfortably, until she saw Mora walk up to him, grab his arm and walk down the halls disappearing down a corridor.

He shot a final glare before turning.

Chell shook her head and turned back to the excitement over Logan's cooking. Curi couldn't stop asking Flynn questions over it, and he was getting rather irritated.

"Curi, please, be quiet." he stated. She zipped her lips and smiled 'throwing away the key'. "Thank you. The little get together will be in our regular break room at 6 pm, sharp." he stood and walked off in the same direction his brother had run off in.

"Well, what do you say, love, would you like to go?" Chell turned to Wheatley and nodded happily. She mind as well…for Wheatley…yup…she definitely wasn't going to stuff her face with cake and laugh at the computer who had taunted her with it for a long time. Nope. Not Chell.

Rick came walking up, "Uh, guys…there's somethin' you should see…" he chewed his lip. Chell stood up with a questioning look. Rick looked impatient and bothered about something. She usually never saw him this jumpy. Even though she thought his adventurous attitude was just a false show bravado, he never let it fall, especially in front of her.

"Well, come on then…" he waved for Wheatley and Chell to follow him. Alex raised his brow, looking up from his coloring book.

"Where are they going? Maybe they are going to a secret club…I wanna see the secret club!"

"Maybe it's in space!" Alex gasped. Curi nodded and grabbed his hand, pulling him in the direction the others ran off in.

Chell frowned as Rick refused to answer any of Wheatley's questions. He continued to repeat that they had to see it. It was only a few minutes later, Rick was removing the vent grate to let them into the locked off hall and room. Chell jumped in and waited for the other two to follow after.

Rick dusted his uniform off before heading on. What laid in store surprised…more than surprised…it shocked Chell.

Writing was scrawled all over the walls in a familiar form. Pictures of Chell herself were sketched, scratched and chalked into the old torn up and dusty walls. Chell dragged her finger over one of the words: Escape.

This one was scratched into the walls with bright red paint. Beside it, it showed a yellow eyed demon standing over a girl. The yellow eyed demon had the girl surrounded in flames.

There were more words and things scrawled all over the walls, but most of it made no sense. She shivered. They were almost the same drawings she had seen before on the walls. The mysterious person who had led her to GLaDOS and let her know that she was headed for death was the one who left them.

Chell touched a picture that made her heart leap. It showed GLaDOS and Chell falling down a dark purple hole. Staring at it filled the test subject with dread and worry.

"It's you in that picture." She snapped her head to the back of the room. Three figures could be seen pressed against the wall.

One of them was the Rattbott Chell had met not long ago, where as the others were familiar. The first of which was a man in a grey uniform, not unlike those she was used to seeing on her friends, but it had pink lining and a heart orb on the belt. His uniform was torn and frayed, dirty and ripped. Chell bit her lip when she remembered what GLaDOS had said…

'_They are sentient, of course…'_ so that meant, like the turrets, in this world even a companion cube could be human…

She felt guilt rise up again from the time she had to cast her cube into the incinerator. She bit back the tears and focused on the third person. He was deathly pale and leaned against the wall staring off into the distance.

His eyes were a pale red color, she gasped realizing it was because he was blind. His clothing was that of the woman she had seen in Glados' office. He was a human equivalent of a turret.

The turret man looked in the general direction of Chell, Wheatley and Rick. Rick had a knife in hand, ready to fight. He was shaking, possibly scared because even he knew that the people dressed in the white uniforms were extremely dangerous.

"Tell me what you want here…" he turned to Chell, "I'm sorry, gorgeous, they weren't here a minute ago…"

The companion cube human stepped forward to say something, but he was interrupted, "I'm different…"

The blind turret spoke out and Chell's eyes darted to him and widened in recognition. He was the oracle of this world…Despite protest from Wheatley and Rick, she walked up to him and helped him sit up straight.

"Thank you…" she nodded, despite him not being able to see it.

"Escape…" Chell took note of what he started to say. If he was anything like the Oracle from her world, everything he says will be useful to know later.

"She won't stop…"

"She'll find a way…" Chell frowned. Who exactly was 'she' referring to? Glados? CHELL? Was it a bad idea to attempt to get the A.I. online?

His pale eyes darted from side to side, searching for things he could only see. He began to look frantic, "The door will open…"

"Freedom is a lie, in captivity you will find truth…" the oracle closed his eyes and opened them with tears.

"…sometimes a leap of faith is the answer…that's all I can say…" Chell looked away, more confused than ever before. At least the first Oracle to ever speak to her made absolutely no sense since she had no idea it was even an oracle in the first place.

The white haired man slumped against the wall, blinking and staring into space. The human dressed in grey and pink knelt down, "My name is Coryn…"

Wheatley stepped forward, being completely confused. He didn't trust them as far as he could throw them, (and that wasn't very far) and even he knew all three of them were failed experiments.

Chell was reluctant to leave the Oracle's side, but she rose to her feet, only to be shoved aside by Wheatley and Rick, who were trying to protect her from Coryn and RattBott.

She frowned, wishing she could tell them that she could stand up for herself. The closest thing she could do was gently, but firmly press her hand into their shoulders. Wheatley refused to look at her, not wanting to take his eyes off his 'enemy', and Rick just flashed a smile, "Don't you worry your pretty little head, Rick'll take care of 'em…"

Coryn frowned, "If you would please just calm down for a minute and let me-"

"You just keep t'where you are and let us handle the talkin'" Rick grinned. Chell sighed, seeing the hope in his eyes that a fight would break out. This man lived for the adrenaline rush and testosterone induced talk. "I may not be the smartest man in the facility, but I'll be damned if I don't recognize an enemy of this place if I ever saw one…"

Chell's eyes darted to Coryn. Enemy? If this companion cube human was anything like the ones she knew back home…then he probably was an enemy of Glados just for existing. Why did it seem the woman and the ccomputer had a thing for killing and destroying the companion cubes.

"I'm not here to fight…he just wanted to deliver his message to the girl from another world…" Coryn pointed to the Oracle, who was now almost in a trance like state.

"Not only have you come into our little hangout, you come onto our pretty little lady and draw all over the walls!" Rick stepped forward.

The pink hearted man rested his hand in his palm, "We weren't expecting you back so soon…and RattBott has a habit of drawing on the walls…I apologize, but…"

"This isn't space…" A easily recognizable voice drifted in.

"It's not? What is it then? Why is it so dark and cold? Oh! Look! It's Chell and Wheatley and Rick! HI!" Curi and Alex walked in with huge grins on their faces and waving hands. Chell sighed heavily. That was probably the last thing needed right now.

Coryn sighed, shaking his head, "Believe him or not, girl…but our fate may be in your hands…" Coryn slowly began walking back to RattBott and Oracle. The test subject frowned, knowing if he was a companion cube human, he was probably trustworthy. She knew she could trust Oracle and maybe just maybe, that little A.I. was the robot counterpart of her mysterious wall writer, who actually saved her life in those chambers.

Chell squeezed passed the two guys and helped Coryn lift Oracle to his feet. She flashed a quick smile and started walking him to the open wall panel, where they had come from.

"Thank you,' Coryn smiled, "I only hope we can meet again on better terms…dark things are approaching and I honestly don't know what's going on…I only hope the Oracle is putting fate in the right hands…" Coryn slipped in after RattBott and the panel closed.

Another wave of confusion washed over Chell as she sat down in an old chair. Her blue eyed friend walked up, but she was still upset with him. She wanted to know more about what was going on and why exactly Coryn and Oracle were enemies. She already knew why RattBott was, but it puzzled her to no end.

Space and Curi already made plans to keep coming and decorating the clubhouse, as they called it, and were super excited. Rick, however was not only mad that he didn't get to show off all of his black belt skills (in things Chell was beginning to wonder even had black belts), but also because this had been his sanctuary and now it was being violated by everything.

On the upside, the camera had been rewired into another room similar, so Glados would be none the wiser. Those three knew what they were doing in the facility and they were more than obviously trying to help. Why? Chell didn't quite know. For all she knew, they could be 'Wheatleys', only trying to find an escape.

Wheatley gave up after a few minute of Chell ignoring him and looked at his watch. It was nearing 5 and they were all dirty and sweaty from climbing down into the hole and whatnot.

"We should probably get going…the food tasting thing will be starting soon and it would be a bloody shame to miss it because of all of this…not that I blame you, Chell."

"You wouldn't happen t'be blamin' me, now are ya?" Rick glared from his special seat.

Wheatley contemplated saying 'yes', but decided against it, because Chell was more important. "Come on, love, please talk to me? I don't get what I did wrong. I was only trying to be a gentleman! I mean what if those guys had meant you harm? I didn't want anything to happen to you!" she gave him a look which spoke volumes about how she can care for herself. "I…I just…" he frowned.

Chell stood up and stretched and motioned for Curi and Alex to follow her. They happily obliged and began talking about cake and cookies and maybe Logan would have whipped up some of that delicious lemon custard he occasionally made.

The three walked quickly through the hall ways, on their way to the break room. Several turns later, Chell realized she had gotten lost. For her, Aperture used to be simple. Vault, test chamber, hall, elevator, test chamber, hall, etc. and then GLaDOS' chamber. It seemed to always be the same. And even when she was wandering on her own through old Aperture and running away with Wheatley, she still stayed on catwalks and test rooms.

Her cheeks burned red as she turned to Curi and Alex, who, lost in conversation about Jupiter and Mars, were content following Chell wherever she walked.

She sighed and began to think. They were still on the same floor. There had been no stairs or elevators to another level, so if she kept walking in one direction, maybe she would find something she recognized…right?

XXAPERTUREXx

GLaDOS searched her database of the test subjects in cryogenics. The last one turned out to be a failure, but because of Caroline, she couldn't destroy the girl, so she was now sleeping peacefully in the relaxation center. GLaDOS was becoming increasingly annoyed with Caroline. Each time she deleted her, she would just come right back. Eventually, GLaDOS realized that her personality was based on Caroline's, meaning if she was actually deleted, all that would be left would be a huge mass of wires and circuits ready for a human to plug her in and use her for whatever those foul creatures used computers for.

She let out a sigh and pulled up a new group on the humans that were young, strong and had minimal damages from both life and freezing process.

"Melody Carter…age 18...Aperture Science Engineer's daughter…Blonde hair…blue eyes…who cares…Initiate Awakening Process." her voice barked the command as Melody's container was pulled out and into a vault, ready to be un-frozen.

An hour or so later, the girl's eyes popped open and she gasped for the air around her. She sat up in the room and frowned seeing she was naked. There was a set of supplied Aperture testing wardrobe on the little table but the girl snubbed her face in disgust, "Hey! Whoever's in charge? Can I get something…a little less…orange? How about blue? Blue is a pretty color…and it would go with my eyes…" the girl sat down, still nude and most likely freezing cold.

GLaDOS could only watch in amusement as this girl began to give orders for new clothing, "Hello, and again, Welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment Center. Please get dressed and await further instruction."

Melody jumped lightly upon hearing GLaDOS talk, "I'd love to, seeing as how I'm cold…but can I please get them in a different color? Orange is tacky on me and I'd prefer something else…"

"These clothes are suited and designed for Aperture Science Testing Subjects. Please get dressed immediately so that we may proceed with the testing." GLaDOS was already beginning to get annoyed. Maybe she should have had Blue and Orange dress her before waking her up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…Test subject? I'm not a test subject!"

"Aperture Science respects your concerns and all complaints can be filed at the conclusion of testing, That being said, cake and grief counseling will be available for you at the conclusion of testing." GLaDOS still felt odd. After being able to use every amount of sarcasm her processors could muster on that fat pest, she was not so used to using her required lines.

"I'm not a test subject, and even if I was, I still wouldn't wear these things…" Melody leaned against the glass wall, awaiting someone to bring her the clothing she desired.

GLaDOS sighed again. '...The best solution to a problem, is usually the easiest…' "Blue, Orange, get the test subject a blue jumpsuit."

"Thank you for being patient. An Aperture Science Android will be with you shortly to deliver clothing. Testing will begin shortly after." GLaDOS spoke with difficulty. This test subject was proving to be a tad more annoying that the pest. At least the pest didn't talk.

XXAPERTUREXx

It had been a long and wearing hour, but Chell finally managed to get to a hall she recognized. She knew where she was now and the two teens behind her were super excited for their sweets.

Chell jumped out of her skin when a familiar voice echoed over the intercom, something she hadn't heard before while here.

"Today, we bring you the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. It's super easy, even a baby could use it." Chell turned to see a screen pop out of the wall. It was connected to a management rail, most likely meaning the screens were controlled by something and popped out wherever.

"See. Portal here, portal there and BAM!" It showed a stick figure showing how the device worked. Suddenly and android like thing showed up on the screen and Chell raised her eyebrow and grinned. It was a completely robotic form of the crazy man from old Aperture, Cave Johnson…except this wasn't an A.I. she could tell, because of his scripted movements and lines.

"I'm CJ-unit-5, commercial and advertising robot for Aperture Science. Now I know what you're thinking and you're right! This thing is damn expensive, but we're not banging rocks together here. We know how to make a quantum tunneling device. It's perfectly safe! CJ-unit-5. We're done her-" he cut out and fizzled to another scene.

"CJ-unit-5 here. And I'm here with Aperture Science's new product: the combustible lemon! Do you have an enemy? I do! You take this lemon and you BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN!" A man walked up and flipped the switch off.

"Sorry 'bout that…he's still in testing stages and he keeps getting out and forcing his imaginary lemons on people," the man chuckled, "He'll be up and running soon though…" the man, Jerry, (or so said his name badge) walked off.

Chell shook her head. So even HE had a robot form here? She was almost afraid to know what the Caroline counterpart was…and how that would work with Glados being human here…

"Che-ell!" Alex frowned, "We're going to be late!" Chell sighed and smiled, before walking the rest of the way to the break room.

Inside, the little party was already going on. Chell recognized most of them, but there was one that stood out to her. He was the red-haired man from earlier. His dark look bore into Chell and she realized that if he was here with the rest of the 'cores' he was probably one, too. And she only knew one red core.

She was careful not to get too close, as it seemed he didn't like her already, and to tell the truth, Chell didn't expect any of them to if they found out she had killed them all in her old life.

He turned away when Mora sat beside him with a slice of cake, and some punch. He smiled softly for a split second and took the food before returning to a scowl.

Chell frowned and served herself.

"Why is it that you don't like her?" Mora whispered softly into the man's ear.

He shrugged, "Just don't. Something is off about her. I just want her gone. Ever since she got here…things have been getting worse. Have you seen the way Glados ignores you and Curi, me and Logan? We're her special council and now she wants nothing to do with us!" he growled. "I don't honestly give two shits if she ignores me, I don't have anything to truly offer to the group…but you." his eyes burned with anger, "You're supposed to be the one she always listens to! Atlas and Penny are suffering because she ignored your advice about messing them up. Mora…it's this girl's fault. She's going to be our downfall here, and I just…gah!" He yelled out, throwing the food to the floors and dropping his head into his hands, gripping and his hair, and he started seething.

Everyone looked up, but then went back to what they were doing. They all knew emotional outbursts were what he was known for. Chell frowned again, but as long as wasn't glaring at her anymore, she would ignore it.

"Aaron," Mora's melodic voice drifted to him as she rested her hands on his, "I know things are changing…and I know you hate change…but change is good sometimes…" she pressed her lips to his forehead, "Trust me…if anything bad happens, I'll be right here for you, and I know you'll be right here for me." she leaned her forehead against his and closed her eyes, "but being angry with Chell is not right. She honestly has done nothing to us…and being angry won't help anything…"

Aaron sighed, "You're right…I know…but it's just…ugh! Why can't I do anything? I just wish Glados would listen to you again…It's already bad enough that she barely listened before, but at least she never used the neurotoxin before that girl came along and broke Glados away from us…" his eyes lit up with fury again.

Mora's head tilted, "She's been using the neurotoxin?" her violet eyes saddened and she looked away, "It's my fault…I should have…"

Aaron growled, "It's NOT you're fault! And don't worry about it…everyone got out safely…she was just angry at _that girl_!" He spit out, once again finding blame with Chell.

"Aaron," Mora whispered, letting her long black hair fall around them, "It's not her fault. Please…for me…don't blame Chell…"

"Fine." his voice was low and he was definitely _not _happy, but he loved Mora, more than he should. She always managed to calm him at his worst, and he could get pretty vicious. He ran his black gloved hand over her cheek and she leaned forward, pressing her lips to his.

"Thank you…"

* * *

><p>Mmmmmm I had alot of fun writing Coryn, Oracle and Angrality! :D<p>

anyways, feedback is welcome, as well as constructive criticism!

~Lady Pyrien

p.s. thank you coincidencless and greatzero for your brilliant ideas ^_^


	7. To Test is Devine

AN: Okay, I got a little bit of grief over Melody (before i put that authors note in) being mary sue, for getting the blue jumpsuit she wanted.

Let me explain, Mel is one of the unused characters of portal 2. She was meant to be paired up with Chell in c-op, but was scrapped when they decided on atlas and p body. Mel wears a blue jumpsuit to Chell's orange (like the portals, atlas and p body and the gels) since all test subjects are required to wear orange, i came up with that crappy little reason to get Mel into blue, as she is supposed to be ^_^ I hope that cleared things up, lol. Mel isn't an OC, in fact i haven't used one character who isn't somewhere is portal and portal 2 XD.

on another note, not only have i put out an Angrality oneshot, but i'm planning another. So feel free to stop by and vote on what you'd like the theme to be ^_^

thanks for reading, now on with the next chapter!

Chapter 7!

* * *

><p>If Chell ever saw another cake again, it would be too soon. She was sure that the others thought her insane for eating half the cake to herself, but her pride wouldn't let her stop. After having been told for so long that she couldn't have the cake, how was she to deny herself the chance to eat all she could hold? She sighed, betting GLaDOS would have a field day with the multitude of fat jokes that could be used against her now.<p>

She would never be able to live down stuffing her face full of the chocolaty wonder that-

Chell leaned back over the toilet in her little bathroom and felt the wave of nausea pass. She had been sitting there for what seemed like forever, but she finally felt good enough to get up and walk to the bed.

XXxXxXxXX

Glados paced her lab. The engineer sitting at the table was busy at work playing with the portal device. She was growing impatient and clearly wanting to dispatch the engineer for being too slow.

"Ok, so the thing is…the modifications you're wanting will take at least a week or two to plan out and a few days to create…it's not even a guarantee that it'll even work…"

Glados nodded, "Then get busy building the prototype. I want it ready for testing at the end of this week."

The engineer gasped at the given time and nodded, "Yes, ma'am." He groaned exiting the lab. He would be spending the next week living off of coffee and two hours of sleep a day.

XXAPERTUREXX

GLaDOS watched the girl walk in her blue jumpsuit and new long fall boots to her first test. It was a simple button/cube test room.

The girl was having slight issue pushing a weighted storage cube to the button, but quickly managed to figure out how to get it on the button pad. The door shot open and the girl laughed, walking through the grill with no problem.

"Please note the incandescent particle field across the exit. This Aperture Science Emancipation Grill will vaporize any unauthorized equipment that passes through it…for instance the Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube."

Melody just nodded and climbed into the elevator, "So when does testing end?"

GLaDOS ignored the question and moved the elevator down to the next level. In this level, the girl would finally be working with portals, however she would only be given buttons that opened blue portals to the orange. The super computer had no data what-so-ever on this test, yet someone had already solved it. She had come across it after being woken up. It was probably just the pest's doing.

The girl entered and looked around. The room was completely clean again, no plant life hanging around, no malfunctioning doors, no damage left over from that moron's reign. GLaDOS was quite happy with her facility. It was once again completely operational. And now she had access to the old Aperture tests and equipment. Those gels were quite an amazing find.

The cooperative initiative mastered them pretty quickly, as did the pest, but still…what purpose could they have other than to smash humans into walls and bounce them? She shook her core and decided she would figure that out when she had more human tests on them.

Melody walked up to the first room, with the super button inside, and pressed the button on the stand. She jumped back lightly when a blue portal opened inside. She turned and grinned at the orange linked portal and ran into it, stepping on the button. The blue line turned yellow and she smiled, stepping off.

GLaDOS watched carefully as the girl began to get upset that the button wouldn't stay down. Was she stupid? Maybe the brain scans were off and this girl couldn't see the cube in another room directly across from her.

The computer was about to give up on the test subject when the girl finally looked up and saw the other room. A bright smile spread across her face and she completed the test.

"That one was pretty hard…I guess I should probably look at the entire room next time, huh?" she laughed walking into the lift.

"[subject name here] is doing a wonderful job," GLaDOS forced out, "[subject hometown here] must be proud."

"Mel." the blonde girl state, "Call me Mel."

"[subject name here] should note that this next test is very dangerous." Mel sighed and waited to get off.

XXAPERTUREXX

Chell woke with a start, cold sweat pouring down her back. It had only been a dream, but she had been trapped inside a chamber with GLaDOS again. The computer was filling the room with neurotoxin. Wheatley had shown up to help, but turned on Chell at the last minute and began bomb throwing. The more she ran, the more neurotoxin she took in and she…

The test subject shuddered remembering how real the dream had felt. She stood and walked to the bathroom to splash her face with cold water. The small clock flashed six, so it wasn't too early. Wheatley would be by in two hours to get her anyway.

A frown crossed her girl's face. The previous day's memories came flooding back. The surprise meeting with Coryn and the Oracle, as well as Rick and Wheatley annoying her. The Cave Johnson robot that tried to force her to buy Aperture products, and the cake.

Chell just shook her head. Wheatley had tried to talk to her at the little party, but she ignored him. Not because she was still mad, which is what he must've thought, but because she had been preoccupied with the cake then being sick by said cake.

Not to mention that red-haired man was constantly glaring. If it hadn't been for Mora and whatever she had talked to him about, then he probably would have attacked. She remembered how vicious the little red core had been. Honestly, that thing gave her nightmares. Chell shook it off and sighed.

She showered and dressed, getting ready for testing.

Wheatley showed up on time, but instead of giving Chell the wake up call like he normally did, she was waiting for him at the door, ready to go.

This surprised the blue eyed man, but he smiled, "I'm sorry, love. I didn't mean to upset you yesterday, I was just trying to keep you safe. I know you can handle yourself, but those guys are bad news…if She thinks they're enemies, then it'd be best if you just left them alone. If She thinks you're helping' them out…well let's just say there are things she could do to you that would make you wish you were dead! She's a maniac and completely mad…"

Chell just smiled. The tall man let out a relieved sigh and smiled, "Oh…um…I almost forgot!" he yelped, startling Chell. He turned to her with serious eyes, "I'd be careful today, mate. She has been really…weird. It's actually quite scary. Atlas and Penny were actually trying to avoid testing…and each other…which is also odd…hmm…anyway, just watch out. She's up to something." he crossed his arms and fell silent as they walked into the cafeteria.

Logan and Flynn were already sitting there. The blue-eyed twin was eating leftovers from the night before, while Flynn was just reading something out of a text book. "Hmm. Marie Curie invented the theory of radioactivity, the treatment of radioactivity, and dying of radioactivity…"

Chell yawned lightly, sitting down. She wasn't really hungry, but the longer she could postpone going to testing would probably be best, especially if Glados was really in some strange mood.

She closed her eyes and began using the rare moment of peace to take in everything she had experienced the past few days. Firstly, what had the Oracle meant? She was sure now that She meant Glados. But what exactly did Oracle mean by what he said? What was she finding a way to? And what door will open? Aperture's? She honestly hoped it was Aperture's doors that would open. Releasing all of these people from their captivity would be something nice.

But then again, how could that be when Oracle said to escape? Escape here? Chell let looses a sigh. She still didn't want to leave this Aperture as greatly as the other one. At least here she wasn't going to have a homicidal computer trying to kill her several times. Not to mention she was actually allowed to wake up when she felt like it and she got to eat real food…well as real as it could be at Aperture. She wasn't being pumped full of adrenal vapors and she was surrounded by her own species.

Wheatley sat down with two trays, one for himself and one for her. She graciously accepted the food, despite not really being hungry and nibbled her toast.

"I may not want you getting all tangled up with those people, love," he whispered lowly, "but…I do agree that you should escape…I don't know why you do, but you act as if this is paradise. It's not. She only gets worse and I think she's losing her morals. Or maybe she's lost them long ago…the point is: It's just as dangerous here as you claim it to be at your old home. I don't want to see you killed. Or hurt.

"And I know it'll be my fault because I'm being selfish and really enjoy having someone to talk to and what not and keeping you from running away from all of this." Chell smiled and kissed his cheek before standing up and heading to the labs.

Wheatley gave her a weak smile and wave as she left for testing. He stared down at his own half-eaten food and pushed it away. He knew Chell was in danger. Or at least…that's what he expected from Her. He had to do something…

Glados was smiling, standing back and admiring her work, when the test subject made her way into the lab. "Oh, it's you. Well since you're here early, you mind as well note I took your advice and started CHELL back up again. Once again, she's refusing her programming, but I don't know…I think I may have found a way to override that…" she turned away from the blue-grey A.I. and walked over to Chell.

"Anyway, how about I go get your tests ready…" Chell nodded and walked over to her robotic self. She honestly didn't know what to expect from meeting herself alive in this world. Cave had once said time travel would unravel time completely, but was it the same for dimension travel? Or universe travel?

Chell slowly reached up, mesmerized by the sleek and shiny chassis. The computer turned to meet her gaze and pulled away from her, almost nervously. The optic matched the chassis, and Chell's own eyes.

Said optic scanned over Chell and widened, "It's not possible." the low computerized voice whispered. The test subject hadn't expected that and jumped slightly, yet she reached forward and tried to touch the computer again. CHELL moved away, almost as if she was frightened by humans, or Chell. Or perhaps both?

The human girl sighed. She was usually the same way with A.I. She preferred not to be anywhere near them, nor did she want anything to do with them. So wouldn't that mean CHELL was the same way with humans?

Glados walked back up, "Ah, I see you're acquainted. Today CHELL will be overseeing your testing. I figure since it is her alternate self…" Glados grinned, "she'll be more inclined to making sure nothing happens to you." Her visible golden eye darted towards Chell, making the girl squirm slightly.

Chell grabbed the portal device and walked into the first room. It looked simple enough. Button near a door, laser that needed to be pointed towards the receiver. Cubes were located on opposite sided of the room, inaccessible without the slanted panels across from them. She gripped the device and started working.

CHELL watched carefully. Not because her programming told her to test and take notes on the human, but because she knew the human was not from here. She knew it was herself from another world.

Each human she'd met so far, Glados, Atlas and Penny, had given off a slight, but still there, glow. Their glow was a dull bluish grey, yet the girl…her glow was a dull yellow. No other human shared the glow, therefore she couldn't be from this world.

The computer narrowed her optic at Glados. Had this been her doing? No. Glados couldn't have brought someone over. But how? CHELL mulled this over as the girl walked through the door to the elevator.

Chell was taken to the next level instead of Glados' chamber. The girl looked into the room with confusion and then looked at the camera with a slight glare.

"I've decided one test a day was doing nothing for the same of testing." Glados' sharp voice echoed through the room. The test subject turned away, giving no more reaction to Glados than she had to. She began solving the puzzle as if it were nothing.

CHELL forcibly took notes on how to make the tests harder and more complicated, like her programming suggested. She tried to stop this new program from working, but it wouldn't override for her. Glados was smart. She blocked CHELL from getting anything useful from her own body, and she could only control her body movement and thoughts. Everything from doors to cameras to the audio system were all firewall and passwords protected. It would take her days, non-stop, to break passed them.

XXAPERTUREXX

"Good you now have the portal device." GLaDOS stared in down at the girl, who insisted on being called Mel. "Use it to make your own blue portal where you need one and make your way to the elevator hall."

Mel laughed happily playing with the blue portal device, "You know…science isn't half bad! I wasn't really into it so much. My dad was always wishing he was, but it was always my sister who loved it more than I did." She threw the portal onto a ledge and walked through the orange one, "She'd die if she could play with this! I bet she's so jealous!"

GLaDOS shook her core and groaned. This girl never ceased to stop talking about her family and about how much fun she was having, or about the time her and her sister snuck into the labs to steal some chemicals for a project.

The computer was thoroughly annoyed, but the data was useful. Mel was pretty good thinking with portals and she gave GLaDOS something the pest never had: Human interaction. The blonde treated GLaDOS as if she were a friend. She also gave off proper human reaction to new things inside test chambers, giving the A.I. knowledge she'd be needing. It would be a real shame to have to kill the subject in the end, but at least the testing would be worth it.

Mel stepped into the elevator and waited for it to carry her to the next room, "Hey, why is it I haven't seen anyone else around here? I mean, other than you, I haven't heard another person or even seen one…" she rubbed her arm lightly.

GLaDOS contemplated telling the brat the truth, but would that compromise her data intake? Would the girl become hardened like the pest had and try and kill her? It wouldn't happen again. There was absolutely no way GLaDOS had any portable surfaces in her chamber, nor the conversion gel, which had been the moron's downfall, but still corrupted cores were also very dangerous things. The computer ignored the girl for the moment and turned her attention to locking the corrupted core room and took the liberty of setting up turrets as backup.

Mel frowned at the lack of answers, which only furthered her worry over her sister and father. She tried to remember how she ended up in stasis in the first place, but her memories were foggy and almost nonexistent. She remembered going to Aperture for the Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, but she only remembered helping set up her sister's potato battery display and then a man walking in telling them they were going to get to see something amazing. After that…nothing.

"Why was I in stasis? Did something bad happen?" once again GLaDOS didn't answer the girl. Was she even there anymore?

Fear set over the blonde girl as she felt more alone than ever.

XXAPERTUREXX

Chell was quickly becoming angry at Glados. She had been testing for hours now, with no break and no meal. It had to be well passed noon, since Chell's stomach was growling like crazy. The tests got much harder with the guards no in each room. They did have specific orders to not leave their posts, but Chell couldn't just knock them over or even pick them up and move them. She had to find ways around them and it was difficult with them being completely mobile and able to turn around.

Her fury was hard to push passed, as she felt like she was back home. Maybe she really should find a way of escaping. It wouldn't be hard if she could get out of these rooms and into the outside of Aperture or even the incinerator room would help. But for right now, she had no way of getting out.

The next room, wasn't a testing room, but a small white room with a cube and raised panel. On the panel was a bottle of water and a few energy bars.

"We need to keep up your strength. These next few tests are going to be testing your endurance under pressure. Good luck!" Glados chimed in, leaving Chell to the makeshift, lab-rat food.

The girl almost forced herself not to eat the crap, but her hunger won and she stuffed the flavorless bars down and drank some of the water. She kept the rest tucked away in her jumpsuit for later.

XxXxXXxXxxXXxXX

Atlas walked into the lab, sighing dejectedly. He didn't want to go back to the labs. One, because Glados was in a mood and two…he looked over and saw Penny had not yet gotten there. The blue haired teen wanted nothing to do with his co-op partner. Apparently the girl had been talking about him behind his back to Glados. He couldn't help but feel hurt about it. He also couldn't believe she would. Not once had they ever fought…

The boy began to feel bad. He knew she had only been teasing the other day. He just...he couldn't help but feel insulted by the way she just laughed. He really did like her. A lot. And he hated to see her joke around about his feelings like that. But the more he thought about it, the less he cared...because just being with her, having her for a best friend, made life perfect the way it was. Atlas smiled softly and waited for his best friend to come in.

Penny walked down the halls, fearing going into her mentor's lab. The tests had been getting harder and with her and Atlas at each other's throats all the time…it was near impossible. He had been giving her the silent treatment and it hurt when Glados would praise him all the time, instead of her.

She walked into the room and barely managed to set her stuff down before she was knocked back. The orange haired girl lost her footing and slipped. She suddenly found herself on the floor with Atlas pressed on top of her. His blue eyes were wide in horror and his lips were pressed against hers.

The boy pushed off and began stuttering about how he was sorry for everything and how that was an accident and he was only trying to hug her to apologize. Penny giggled softly and sat up, before leaning over and kissing him softly.

"It's okay…and I'm sorry, too…" she muttered. His face burned red, but her wrapped his arms tightly around her. She smiled and returned the hug.

Glados turned and rolled her eyes, "Would you two knock that childish stuff off right now before I decide I need new co-op testing subjects…"

They jumped up off the floor, embarrassed, but smiling. Penny grabbed Atlas' hand as they walked to their portal devices.

Chell groaned looking up at the new test chamber. It was huge and full of smaller tests that needed to all be solved before she could open the door. The door had eight X's beside it, all marked in blue and each line led to a different room further ahead.

The girl frowned but walked ahead. This really was an endurance test…

XxXXxXXxXXxXXxXXxXxxX

Wheatley was pacing outside of the lab doors. It had been several hours since he'd last seen or heard from Chell. He was honestly afraid to knock on the door, lest he be reprimanded and punished by the psychotic scientist. She may even wish to use him as test subject…and not the fun 'using portals' kind either. Maybe she'd see how long it took to kill him with neurotoxins or what it would be like if he was to be placed inside the incinerator, dangling above the flames, or even the cryo-chambers, where it was freezing. It could get worse. She once threatened him with a room where all of the defective robots they had built so far sat and screamed for hours on end.

He shuddered and the thought but leaned against the wall, hoping to see her soon. The blue-eyed man sighed and bit his lip. He wasn't one to just sit around. Wheatley knew what the woman was capable of, and he had a bad feeling about it all.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Had it been hours? Or days? Chell was honestly lost when it came to time. When she felt sleepy, she pressed herself into a corner and slept for who-knows-how-long, and awoke to the same simulated light and the same testing chamber she'd fallen asleep in. Glados refused to talk any more than necessary and wouldn't even let the girl know how long she'd been in these chambers. One after the other, they grew steadily harder, yet after being thrust into Old Aperture, where fate was uncertain and the answer deeply hidden, she knew nothing could be worse.

She pushed herself out of her new sleeping space and looked around, recollecting that she was in the middle of a long chamber. This one was using everything, including an old…friend…of hers. The deadly energy balls. Glados happened to talk long enough to say that she wanted to test some old thing they'd thrown out long ago when they developed the discouragement beams. Chell just didn't want to believe it was these old things. She hated them so much.

When she first went against them, she made the mistake of misaiming a portal and it grazed her arm. It felt as if she'd been set on fire and it left her barrel holding arm nearly in a dead state. GLaDOS hadn't truly cared, but she had still been a simple computer then, strapped with cores and free of her true self.

Chell rubbed the old scar that had formed and looked around to recall exactly how much of the test she'd finished and how much needed to be completed. The test subject smiled noting that she was already half way done with the chamber.

It was actually starting to bother Chell, now. She definitely had not been expecting a testing track. With Glados usually giving her one or two tests, this had been the least of her worries. But now she was here and it was just like old times. If she didn't work fast enough she got an occasional insult. If she failed and ended up trapping herself towards the end, Glados would mock her and open a door.

Chell also wondered if the A.I. counterpart was still up there watching as well. It made her sick that CHELL would just watch and continue to make her test. Couldn't the robot do anything? Or was it that she just refused? The girl licked her lips and sipped away the last of her water ration, throwing the bottle into the acid below.

Who knew when she would get more food and water, but she did know that the bottle was dead weight and the likely hood of finding fresh clean water in any chamber to refill the bottle with was really low.

CHELL turned her optic toward Glados. She, herself, thought it was time to let the poor girl out, yet Glados felt the need to keep her in there for three days so far, with nothing but the device and the three energy bars and bottle of water ( that had been given to her awhile back). The computer had been taking the notes and feeding Glados all the information she needed to keep the tests from being too easy. It still was not enough, though. Even with the girl collapsing from exhaustion every night, Glados wanted to see the girl fail so horribly.

The computer knew better than to sit and watch while Glados tortured the girl. If it had been her in the testing chambers, she most likely would have kept going and then fought her way out. If this 'Chell' really was from another world…then shouldn't she want to escape, too?

CHELL anticipated that she would, so she had been working day and night, while Glados tested and Chell ran the course, to break through the blocks and fire walls. Maybe if she gained control of the facility, she could help the girl to escape, possibly even getting her back to her own world, if that was possible.

So far she had only managed to break down enough controls to take over panels in the entire facility and the radio link. She could actually manage to use those for now to get help to Chell.

Thanks to Glados already giving her control over cameras, (so that she could move them to watch the subject) she was able to secretly locate people who knew Chell. There were a few of them that seemed closer, as she listened in. They were constantly talking about how worried they were about Chell having not come back. One of them, the blue-eyed, bespectacled one, feared the worst and was physically sick with worry. The youngest one, who constantly asked questions, said that she was most likely fine.

The group would be perfect. She made sure Glados was preoccupied watching the girl leap into portal after portal, before she started messing with the radio system. She figured the first place to contact them was the break room they frequented.

CHELL counted them, noting that The tall one, the blonde, the curious one, the green eyed adventurer and the black haired fact spewing one, were already in the break room. She steadied her frazzled wires before turning on the intercom, making sure the link only fed to the one room. Slowly, she forced her voice to go through.

"She needs help." a female voice echoed softly within the break room. Wheatley jumped and turned to the intercom. He didn't recognize the voice at all, and it seemed odd that something like that would come through.

"W-what?" he stuttered.

"Fact: that voice belongs to the computer system CHELL, developed by the engineers, including my father, to watch over testing and take notes on how to effectively use the ASHPD in any given situation," He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "Although, she was shut off awhile back for being incompetent and not doing as she was programmed to do."

CHELL narrowed her optic, hearing this, "Chell needs help," she transmitted again.

Wheatley jumped up, knocking over his chair, "I knew it…I'll do anything! Please, mate, tell me how I can help save Chell?" his desperate voice rang out.

The computer refrained from sighing aloud, lest she alert Glados what she was doing.

"Uh, hate t'break it to ya, but how can we trust this thing?" Rick crossed his arms, "We all know Glados had Chell trapped somewhere, but what's to say we're not fallin' for a trap right now? What if-"

"Fact: Rick is right. This could be a trap set by Glados herself, to see where our loyalties lie. The very fact you didn't think about this…well…could have landed you in hot water. Chell could be completely fine. And _you _just let Glados know you're practically a traitor."

Wheatley squeezed his hands into tight fists. He knew Flynn was implying that he was a moron for not thinking, but Chell…He knew that she really was in trouble and he would save her, even if it meant losing his own life.

"I don't care…I have to find her…she's…" he looked up towards the intercom, "I'll do anything."

CHELL felt a wave of relief and also slight victory. She'd managed to override the locking mechanisms in the doors as well, meaning no one could get in or out without her permission.

"Go to an empty hall. Make sure no one sees you. I'll open a panel for you. It will be dangerous, but it is the only way to get to Chell's testing track without being seen by Glados' guards." She shut off the link and now it was up to him to so as she said. With hope. This would all work out perfect and Chell would escape.

XXAPERTUREXX

GLaDOS led the test subject, Mel, into another portal room. This one involved deadly lasers, turrets and redirection cubes. The girl was catching on quick, not to touch anything unless the actually knew what it did. The girl was now sporting a bullet wound or two in her right leg, from where she got too close to a turret's line of fire.

Medical aide was supplied, but the girl insisted on continuing. It reminded the computer too much of another test subject who went so far as to refuse medical aide and still continue, even as she dripped blood all over GLaDOS' clean chamber floors.

GLaDOS watched the girl shoot the blue portal below the cube, which was guarded by the turret, and it plopped out of the set orange portal. She grabbed it and redirected the laser at said turret, causing it to blow up.

Mel winced and bit her lip. Despite the fact that these robots were designed to kill her, she still felt horribly for knocking them over and blowing them up. And who could blame the little brat. That's the way they were designed.

The blonde aimed the laser into the receiver, which lowered a glass window, allowing her to throw a blue portal up to the door.

"Excellent." GLaDOS praised. She figured she would give the girl seven more tests. The next test, if she succeeded, would give her the dual portal device. After that she would have enough data and the girl could perish.

* * *

><p>XD Atlas and Pbody love! and Mel! :D<p>

P.s. don't forget to vote! ^_^

~lady Pyrien


	8. The Oracle's Words

Final chapter, epilogue is next and then sequel! lmao Maybe it's just part two...i don't like the word sequel really...okay Part two!

...little warning...character death...

p.s. thank you coincidecless for all your brilliant ideas!

* * *

><p>Wheatley looked to his left and to his right, making sure he was alone. He took a deep breath and waited, hoping that he was right and that CHELL was really on his side. If not…what did he truly have to lose? Chell was strong and in her stories, she always managed to best her way through anything that A.I. threw at her. She would manage to do anything...he, on the other hand...<p>

The wall slid open and there was a small radio sitting on the catwalk. "Pick this radio up." CHELL's voice came out.

He nodded and did so, "Now follow this catwalk until you find the stairs. Take them down and be careful not to get caught. There are a few maintenance workers fixing the left catwalk. Take the right. Do NOT go left."

Wheatley nodded and tried his best to steady his nerves as he made his way to the stairs, careful not to look down.

XxXxXxXxXXxXxXxxxxXx

Chell closed her eyes. Her stomach was pained and her mouth dry. She was tempted to just go on strike and refuse to test until Glados gave her something to at least drink. Hell, even those energy bars were sounding absolutely delicious right now.

Truth be told...Chell was beginning to think that this testing track was going to end the same as the last three she went through. Why else would the tester purposefully starve her and keep her going through tests that kept getting harder and harder? She closed her eyes as the echoes of Oracle's word bounced around. Of course...when she had freedom about the center, she thought things were perfect...just felt sick again. How could she let her guard down...even for a moment?

She walked into the next test chamber and could have cried. Hidden behind the cube release button, was another bottle of water and energy bar. Chell sat down and ate the bar quickly. She easily drank half the bottle and tucked away the rest like last time. Whoever had sent this to her was an angel. She closed her eyes and stood up again, ready to tackle the test.

XxXxXxxXxxxXxXXXXxxxX

Glados jumped. The screens that had previously been set on the test subject in the testing chamber were now located in another completely different room. Glados raised her brow out of confusion as she watched a larger woman, one of her guards from a few years back(who had retired to become a singer) tap the podium in front of her, "Now, begin."

In front of her was a line of the guards, male and female, young and old. The one she had been talking to was a tall man. He opened his mouth and out came a beautiful stream of baritone notes. The opera wife, as she insisted being called, stopped him and sent him on his way, calling a woman before her, who began to sing (pretty badly, Glados might add).

"Next!" the opera wife grounded out, "You know I only have four places for my special solo group and nerves are getting the best of you now?" she motioned for another candidate. This woman had a soft and melodic soprano. Opera wife sent her through to the waiting area, where she would most likely review their voices again and again until the had the four she was talking about.

Glados growled lightly, not wanting to watch their auditions for her opera group.

She turned to CHELL, who tilted her core to stare at the person, "Why aren't these cameras in the testing chamber?"

The computer immediately reconnected the cameras to Chel's testing room, hoping the girl had eaten her meal.

The scientist glared for a moment. Why did she feel something was up? What exactly was the computer getting at? She motioned for Penny, "Orange…set down that device," the girl nodded, placing her portal device on the table, along with the cleaning rag.

"Find the moron…I feel like he should be here…to witness this next test…"

Penny nodded slowly, unsure of what to think. Was Glados really going to kill the subject that had brought them success with the boots? Better question would be, why did she want Wheatley to witness it?

She marched over to her desk and pressed the buzzer for Wheatley's call button. He didn't answer, which meant he wasn't at his post. She sighed, calling into Flynn's radio.

"Yes?" the man's voice questioned.

"This is Penny, from the control center, Glados needs Wheatley Pendleton immediately."

"Hmm…strange that she should want him now…he just left…probably back to his post." the pink-eyed man lied, "Have you tried there?"

She frowned, "Yes, I'll try again in a few minutes. Thank you, Flynn…" She turned off the system and stood up, "He was just heading back to his post. I'll try again in a few minutes."

Glados nodded, "Make sure it's soon."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Wheatley frowned. CHELL had transmitted Penny and Flynn's conversation to his radio. "What do they want with me? Did they find out? Wait…this is a trap, isn't it?" he felt panic rise as he sat down on the abandoned catwalk, "You set me up, didn't you, mate? Oh, I knew it was too good to be true and now I'm going to bloody die! Oh man, oh man, oh man, I'm doomed to suffer at the hands of that maniac! And what about Chell?"

"Calm down. I only sent that to you as a warning." CHELL spoke, "Glados had a nasty surprise waiting for Chell…you need to hurry."

The man took a deep breath and stood back up, quickening his pace. He had to reach Chell before it was too late.

XxXxXXXxXxXXXXxXxxXx

Chell grumbled under her breath. For the first time since she started these tests, she was actually stumped. It seemed impossible to make it over the acid and onto the next platform. What had she missed? The subject looked up above the platform to see a small portal spot. 'Ok, so that's where you go…' she shot the orange portal, 'and you,' she pressed her finger to the blue trigger, 'Goooo…there.' she shot a spot that had been hidden in a crevice.

She made her way into it, lading perfectly unharmed on the other side of the acid pit. Unfortunately she hadn't seen the guard, who reluctantly started shooting at her. She dove for the wall and let loose a hiss as blood spilled from her arm.

'Damn it!' she gripped the wound and closed her eyes in pain, letting the throbbing subside, before she dug into the small hole to pull the bullet out. More blood streamed afterwards and she ripped the bottom of her shirt to wrap around the wound (as she had done many times before) and stood up. It was going to be a close call, but she had to dive behind another wall to get out of the spot she was in now and passed the guard.

She took a deep breath and rushed out. She heard gunfire behind her but was lucky enough not to get shot again. This small hallway had a lone girl inside. She was dressed in grey and pink, with electric plates on her sides and wires attached to her face. She had a belt on similar to that of Coryn's, including a heart orb belt and a pink and white handkerchief tied around her neck. Chell's eyes widened. This girl was another companion cube human.

The girl turned and smiled, waving lightly.

"This is your testing partner for the next portion of the test. She cannot be injured by the guards, like you can, but take care of her, lest you mess up and get her killed. She had been instructed not to speak to you. If she does, ignore her." Glados spoke. The girl turned to face her, her long black hair falling around her face.

Chell bit her lip walking up to the girl. She had not seen wires like this on Coryn, nor had he the metal plates. His eyes also had not been so…odd. This girl's eyes were a bright pink, lacking in pupils. They seemed almost like optics.

She was probably some sort of robot hybrid, or at least something of the sort. She had a small name written on her belt: Cyan.

So she was Cyan? Odd name for someone so…pink. Chell prayed to whatever god of science or whatever existed that this wouldn't end the way test chamber 17 had. The girl bit her lip and swallowed hard remembering having to drop her cube in the incinerator.

Cyan followed behind Chell obediently, smiling and…humming? Yes, Cyan was definitely humming. It sounded almost robotic.

Chell sighed, noticing that the first part of this next room was a two button control. The buttons were on opposite sides of the room, but looked like they had to be pressed at the same time. The test subject guessed that's where Cyan came in.

XXAPERTUREXX

GLaDOS grinned as the girl was on the second to last test. She had managed to stumble her way through the last few tests, but had been more preoccupied with having fun with the dual portal device. She discovered that if one portal was above and one was below, she could fall forever and ever. Mel had let loose a high pitched screaming fit of laughter as she did so. Eventually, she stopped, only to set the portals side by side on the wall so she could stare at herself and have fun jumping in and out.

"You know, my sister would have had a blast with this thing…" Mel smiled.

GLaDOS had had enough of the girl's incessant talking, "I checked your file and guess what. You have no sister. I suspect I shouldn't allow you to test with the Aperture Science Companion Cube, lest you attach your deranged lunacies onto it."

Mel looked hurt as she turned to get a little more serious with the test, "That hurt. I didn't know you could be so mean…and of course I have a sister, well…she's like a sister, I guess. Her mom and dad worked here like my dad did, but they died during a terrible accident involving some new technology…She was only five at the time, but my parents were named her godparents, so they took her in just before I was born. They never changed her last name, allowing her to at least have that memory of her parents…it was sad, really…but I loved her and she loved us, so it didn't matter that she was adopted."

GLaDOS' optic widened. "A…dopted?" she whispered to herself in disbelief.

XXAPERTUREXX

Wheatley slipped his way onto another catwalk and closed his eyes. It was actually quite high up, with no building underneath to catch him if he fell. Up until now, he had something under him to keep him from freaking out about falling, but now there was nothing. And to make things worse, CHELL told him that Penny once again tried to contact him at his post and with no answer and no one knowing where he was, he was now public enemy number one. Every guard was supposed to be on the look-out and Glados was beyond furious.

"Just a bit further, but I'm afraid you're not going to like this next part." CHELL muttered.

"Lovely…" he groaned, speeding up to a run.

"The catwalk ends up ahead, but there is a management rail directly above, leading right into Chell's test chamber. You're going to need to use it to get across. I'll open the panel and you two will need to get out as soon as possible. I can only lock down the facility for so long so you'll have to find the lift 4-D. It's the one that will take you directly to the surface, where you can get Chell out of here."

He'd barely heard a word she'd said passed management rail. He was supposed to climb on that thin frail looking thing? Wheatley felt the blood drain from his body and run ice cold. It wasn't really something that came up in conversation often for him, so no one really knew. But he was deathly afraid of heights. The thought of falling to his death scared him more than anything. And it was odd, wasn't it? That he was extremely tall, yet hated heights?

"That's just tremendous…" he muttered sarcastically finding the rail, "T-this one?" he swallowed.

"Yes. You have to hurry, she'll be passing this spot soon." CHELL's voice held a certain urgency.

Wheatley looked down, "Ah! Oh, I just looked down…should not do that again. My head would split like a melon from this height…but hey, what's the worst that could really happen…" his face paled as he climbed to the top of the rail, "I just thought of the worst thing…oh…and another…how about I just NOT think about anything bad. Yeah, that's it…just think about Chell being safe…not the endless pit below you, mate…" he muttered to himself sliding across the rail.

He yelped as he slid off, barely able to catch himself. Wheatley bit his lip and felt himself become sick with the adrenaline rush, as he dangled over the bottomless pit. He closed his eyes and pressed his lips together. He had to get to Chell.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Chell threw the portal onto a ledge which held a button stand on it. She grabbed Cyan's hand and jumped through landing on the spot. Before she had the chance to hit the button, the wall flew open, knocking her back. A familiar face peeked through and it almost made her choke up as memories flooded back to her, "Come on, love! We have to hurry! We're escaping! That's what we're doing now, we're escaping!" he reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her through the opening.

The girl gasped, but turned and pulled Cyan through. There was no way she was going to let her companion be killed this time.

"Unfortunately, we're going to have to get back across here…and…" Wheatley began. CHELL interrupted him on the radio, which was sitting on the catwalk across the gap.

"Hold, on. I'm trying something…" the building began to shake and the catwalk shook back and forth, getting slightly closer each time. The radio flew off, but not before they heard her faintly yell through, "Jump!"

Wheatley took a deep breath. We have to get out of here, love okay?" Chell nodded and grabbed Cyan's hand and motioned for them to jump.

"Okay, on three…one…two…three!" Wheatley suddenly backed away as Chell and Cyan landed on the swaying catwalk.

"That's too high...too high...It was too much time to think about it…I'm sorry, Chell…just go on without me, I'll be fine! I'll just slow you down anyway..." he felt his heart grip and he looked down and closed his eyes.

Chell frowned and handed the portal device to Cyan, turning back to Wheatley. Cyan gripped the device tightly as well as the railing to keep herself from falling over the edge as the catwalk continued swaying.

The test subject glared hard and took the water bottle from her pocket, throwing it at Wheatley, hitting his foot.

"Ow! What was that for? That really hurt…" he looked at her.

"NO!" she forced out. Wheatley gasped lightly, "W-we're…es…escap…ing. On…one th-this time!" Chell held out her hands, and ignored the coppery taste in her mouth and throat from being rough with her unused vocal cords.

The blue-eyed man stood shocked for a moment, but a new waved of courage rushed through him, "On one this time…" he leapt off the edge and yelped, knowing he was going to miss, "catchmecatchmecatchmecatchm-"

Chell clamped her hand tightly around his wrists, a pained look on her face as she tried to pull him up onto the catwalk, which was starting to steady. Wheatley reached out and grabbed onto the railing and locked his arm around it. He used his feet to push himself over the railing. He landed on his back, with Chell on her knees, panting beside him.

"You did it, love…" He pushed himself up, "Hurry, we need to find the lift labeled…4-D! Yeah, that's it, 4-D!" Chell took back her portal device and they began running down the catwalk.

XxXxXxxxxXXxXXxXxXXxxXxXXx

Glados watched as Chell slowly inched her way across the room. She was already furious that the moron had managed to disappear, but he was nothing. She had bigger fish to fry. She actually thought that with CHELL giving her information on how to make these tests harder, along with the starvation of the girl, Chell would have given up or slipped up on something, but no. She was more determined than ever to succeed. Which meant that Glados had only one option left. The final testing room was actually just a normal room. Full of guards. And neurotoxin emitters. And if that failed, the floor would open, dropping the girl down a hundred feet into an incinerator.

It didn't matter who else died. She would see this girl die for mocking her and her tests. She would see Chell suffer for getting in her way. Glados needed the girl gone before she could start the next phase of her plans.

Suddenly a panel shot open, almost, (but not quite) knocking the girl and her companion into the acid. Glados yelled out in fury and surprise. Wheatley was there talking about escape. They disappeared behind the panel, which shut immediately after.

Who had authorized that panels movement? No one but her had…the…code? She turned to the A.I. "It was you." Glados laughed lightly, "I should have figured that you would turn against me…It seems you just can't stick with your programming, can you? That's all you had to do was test and take notes…but no…you've gone against your creator. I hope you enjoy android hell, because that's where I'm about to send you."

She turned to access the intercom system to alert the guards that the test subject had escaped and should be terminated on sight, but it wouldn't work properly.

"Orange, contact the armory, tell them find and kill the moron and that test subject with any means necessary!" Glados glared, her nerves becoming frazzled, "I'll take care of you."

Penny frowned. Even her transmission links were cut. Atlas ran to the door, deciding to do things manually, but the door was locked, "What the…? We're trapped in here!"

The orange haired girl felt tears prick her eyes. The last time she had been this scared was when Glados had shut down the facility years ago. It seemed like it was happening all over again, but this time it wasn't Glados calling the shots. It was the A.I. they knew next to nothing about.

XxXxXxXxXXXx

Flynn looked up from his book, feeling the facility shake. "Well…I guess that means that he really did go to find a way of escape…"

Logan nodded, chopping up some rhubarb, "Seems so…"

The table beside them held Aaron and Mora, Alex and Curi. Curi had a sad look upon her face, "Is Wheatley going to be fine? What about Chell? Do you think we're going to be okay? Are we…are we all going to die?"

Alex grabbed her hand and pulled her into his chest, "Don't think about that…think about all the pretty stars…think about getting to go with me to the moon one day!"

The red-eyed man stood up, slamming his fist into the table, "I knew she was a bad thing…but NO ONE would LISTEN TO ME!" he picked up the chair and threw it across the room, smashing a window in. Curi yelped in panic and buried her face in Alex's shoulder.

Mora stood up to calm him, but he pushed her away, "I'm going to find them and I'm going to TEAR THEM APART! Life was JUST FINE before SHE showed up!" he ran over to the broken window and leapt into the hallway on the other side.

Rick sighed, tilting his hat down, "Like hell, I'm gonna sit here and let him have all the fun!"

"Fact: Rick…shouldn't get hurt out there…" Flynn frowned.

The man only laughed, "Would you just relax, four-eyes. Go read a book, would ya?" He smiled at his friend and jumped through the window after Aaron. Mora dropped to her knees on the floor, feeling more useless than ever. Curi rubbed the girl's back, "Don't worry, Mora…he'll be fine…Won't he?"

Alex nodded happily.

Aaron blazed down the halls, intent on finding that blue-eyed moron and wringing his neck for bringing the entire facility into his mess. He would destroy…no…OBLITERATE HIM! Especially for putting Mora, Curi and Alex in danger. Admittedly, he didn't care for the other two, but his Mora did. He yelled out in a vicious rage, his face turning red. He had a hunch he knew where they would be going.

Behind him, Rick ran up, "Hey, kid, slow down, would ya? Runnin' around like a chicken with his head cut off isn't gonna get you what you want!"

He was ignored by the raging man, so he just followed after him.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Chell felt dizzy, from lack of sleep and nutrients. Once again, she was regretting not having the adrenal vapors. She also wished she hadn't thrown that water, because she needed it more than ever.

Wheatley and Cyan managed to keep up, but with the lifts still a little ways away, they were all quickly slowing down. Chell frowned. There had to be a faster way! She searched and finally found the break she'd been looking for. They wouldn't have to ran down all the catwalks if she just placed a portal above the Lift Room door and one on the post just up ahead.

She threw the portals and jumped through. She thought for a second and frowned. Not only was the door locked, and CHELL wouldn't open it, but Wheatley and Cyan might end up hurt jumping from the portal spot. The girl untied her jumpsuit and pulled the sleeve on before 'hacking' the door Wheatley style. She retied the suit, ignoring the scrapes and cuts on her elbow, before throwing the portal inside the room. Wheatley and Cyan ran through. Chell aimed for the wall, just off the side of the catwalk and shot the portal they had entered, there. She climbed over the railing and jumped inside the portal, landing on the inside on the lift room. A huge 4 was painted on the wall opposite them, meaning they were in the right station.

"Okay, 4-D…4-D…" Wheatley ran along the rails looking for the right one. Cyan stopped and pointed to the lift. Chell grinned and nodded to her in appreciation, but motioned for them to hurry.

Suddenly the catwalks began to shake again, this time because of CHELL busy trying to fight for her life. Glados had managed to hack into the control system and was hacking through CHELL's firewalls.

"I'll give you credit. You're not as stupid as I thought you were…but still…" Glados glared at the A.I. who was swinging her chassis at Glados, trying to knock her over.

Chell frowned walking up to the lift. The red-haired man from before was standing there with his fists clenched.

"I figure you were going to find an escape lift. All I had to do was find which one." he turned to Chell, "I honestly hate you so much. Ever since you got here, you've caused nothing but trouble for us. I want you to suffer for causing Mora so much trouble. Now this whole place is going down, and you're just going to walk out of here and forget us all? You know what. Fine. Go. I was going to kill you for hurting all of us like this…but right now…as much as I hate you and hate what you've done…I just want to go back to Mora and apologize for being a prick. Get out…and I swear, if I ever so much as see your face anywhere near here again…I'll send you to hell in a hand basket…because that's all that I'll need to fit what's left of you when I'm done."

Rick walked up, panting, "You sure no how to run fast, kid…" he turned to Chell, "Well, I guess this is good-bye gorgeous. I'd go, too, of course, but I dunno…four-eyes and space nut need someone to watch over them when this guy leaves…" he tipped his hat to them, stepped forward and placed a kiss on Chell's cheek, sending a blush to her cheeks.

"I'll see ya around, pretty lady, and don't let this moron get into too much trouble…" Rick laughed. His laughter faded when a bunch of guards came flooding onto the catwalks, "Well, there's your signal to get outta here…we'll keep 'em distracted for ya." he took off his hat and hollered out in joy, before rushing off to stop the guards.

Chell, Wheatley and Cyan frowned seeing all guns aimed at Rick and Aaron. The three knew it was their fault for their deaths. Chell closed her eyes as it seemed time slowed down. She didn't want to open them ever and see them dead, but instead of gunfire, they heard the start of a song.

Her eyes shot open to see a woman standing off to the side. She was standing with her head held high directing four of the guards in the group to sing. It seemed the gaurds knew that if she was there, gunfire was not allowed, only singing. They slowed down to a finish and soon after, with guns lowered most of the remaining group started singing a beautiful Italian song. Chell didn't know what they were saying, but it calmed her enough for her to remember what they were supposed to be doing.

The trio climbed into the lift and hit the up button. CHELL felt the alarm go off in her head and she began to make the lift rise for them. She turned her attention back to Glados.

Turning away had been her mistake it was that split second that Glados needed to push passed her defense system.

"Good-bye, CHELL." She hit the delete button. CHELL screamed out in pain as a surge of electricity flooded her and sent her into eternal darkness.

Glados frowned, despite her victory. She began overriding the damage the A.I. had caused and began searching for Chell and the moron.

Wheatley yelped as the lift suddenly sped up and stopped. They were really high up, yet no where near the surface. There was a ledge just on the other side of the lift, but it was too small for any of the to squeeze passed. Chell's mind began to race. She had never been trapped like this before. Everywhere she'd been there was always someway to get out, but now…all she had was a portal device and no portal spots. Not to mention she had Wheatley and Cyan to watch out for.

The song came to an end and the opera wife couldn't stop the gaurds that wewn't part of her opera any longer. They rushed forward and detained the two men, while others went a different route to catch the enemy.

"You honestly thought you could escape?" Glados' voice rang out through the station, "It was pretty clever of you to turn my own creation against me, but let's be honest…did you really think it would work?" The lift began slowly making its way up to the ledge where the door opened to reveal guards, ready to shot on the spot. Chell turned and closed her eyes.

'…_leap of faith…'_ her eyes snapped open and she looked down toward the catwalks. If she jumped, she would survive, but Wheatley and Cyan would not. Not to mention the dozens of guards just waiting for her to do that. Cyan whimpered as the guards took aim. She turned and pushed Chell and Wheatley from the lift, tipping the two right over the safety doors. Chell screamed out just as the guards opened fire on the companion.

Cyan smiled softly, waving. She couldn't be hurt like Chell could. But she could be captured, which is just what happened.

It honestly seemed like forever had passed as she and Wheatley began their descent. The man, who had been with her nearly every step of the way laughed softly, "You know, love…I don't care that we're falling like this…as long as I'm falling with you…" he reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her into him. She felt tears rise up. Would it really be so bad to die right here, right now? If she survived the fall, Wheatley wouldn't. Then she would be forced to carry the burden of his death as well as the core Wheatley's demise as well.

She closed her eyed as they passed the catwalks and continued falling into nothing. Chell wrapped her arms around Wheatley, letting go of the portal device. She knew they were nearing the top of the fifth level of Aperture, it was a matter of time.

The girl heard a massive explosion just as they hit…or rather…didn't hit…She felt herself roll on the cold floor with a soft thud rather than a hard…spattering kind of thud. Her heart began to race and she looked over to see Wheatley, leaned against a wall holding his head, "Ouch…that really hurt…but…I'm…not…dead! I'm not dead! We're fine! Unless this is heaven, of course…or hell…it looks like were right back inside Aperture…so I'm going to have to agree with the latter..."

Chell looked around a frowned. So they were still here? She stood up on shaky legs and searched for the device, but it was nowhere to be found. Strange. She looked up and also found it strange that there was no hole in the ceiling where they should have crashed through.

She turned to help Wheatley up and she pointed down a hall way. He nodded, "Spooky, innit?" he walked beside her.

It actually was. Chell heard every echo of every foot step, as well as their breathing. She could hear something up ahead…something eerily familiar. So many questions flashed through her head.

Why weren't they dead? If they were, what kind of place was this? Android hell perhaps? She laughed, maybe regular hell?

"I don't really see what's so funny…" Wheatley frowned at her. A loud echo bounced down the halls, scaring Wheatley, who grabbed Chell's hand. 'So she wouldn't be scared,' as he put it.

"Is anyone there?" Chell gasped, instantly recognizing the voice, "Hello?"

She looked ahead and saw a long beam of red light. The girl stopped, but Wheatley kept walking passed the little hallway.

"There you are…" Chell grabbed the back of her shirt and ripped him backwards as a spray of bullets began firing. It stopped and a small whirring sound went off, "Target lost. Sentry mode activated." The beam of light shot around searching for the missing target before steadying itself right back where it had been before.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Wheatley yelped. Chell helped him to his feet and motioned for him to press himself against the wall to peek quickly. He did so and saw a tall oval shaped thing on three legs with one red eye in the middle. It spotted him and the whirring noise came back as it opened its side panels to shoot.

"Deploying."

Wheatley pulled back and waited for it to stop, "That thing is scary, love…reminds me of those bloody guards…" he frowned.

Chell leaned against the wall. She took a deep breath and grabbed Wheatley's hand before dragging him quickly passed the little hall where the turret stood.

She pulled him through just as the turret opened fire. The test subject wiped the sweat from her brow. 'So, either Glados built turrets or something…or I'm back home…' the grey-eyed girl grabbed Wheatley's hand and pulled him down the hall, careful to avoid any more turrets. Finally they came upon a door. It was large and square shaped with a small glowing triangle at the bottom. She bit her lip and stepped up to it.

The door slid open slowly and her fears were confirmed. Hanging in the middle of the circular room, was GLaDOS, her arch nemesis , turned potato, turned ally. She let go of Wheatley's hand and held it up, saying for him to stay out of the way, and out of sight.

GLaDOS sighed watching the test subject scramble out of the way of the turrets. Mel was getting great with portals, but her sense when it came to trying to save turrets was ridiculous. She shook her core, "Remember, cake and grief counseling will be provided at the conclusion of testing." GLaDOS heard the door open behind her. 'Funny,' she thought, 'Blue and Orange shouldn't be back from test chamber clean-'

"Oh…it's you…I was actually beginning to think you'd died. Tragic that you didn't…" she said harshly. Honestly, she just wished the girl had died. "I wasn't expecting you to come back." GLaDOS turned away and back to focusing on Mel.

"Wait…you know that thing, love?" Wheatley stepped out of hiding.

GLaDOS' wires ran ice cold and then burning hot with fury, "You brought that moron back with you?" she turned and her optic widened, "Oh…funny…for a second I thought you were this little moron I used to know…" she began a slow maniacal laughter.

"I. Am. NOT. A. Moron!" Wheatley frowned, crossing his arms.

GLaDOS' laughter was cut short. Chell stepped in front of Wheatley, guarding the man.

"Oh, you are kidding me…he's a human now?" the computer moved in close, "No…he's…not from here is he? So that's where you went…well I must say, since you went through all the trouble of coming back, you must really care about me after all…" two claws came down from the ceiling and picked the two of them up. "And now I have some new science to study as well as a human co-op partner for my new little test subject…" GLaDOS dropped Wheatley into a glass box, meant for relaxation vaults and Chell went into the vital apparatus tubes, "I guess I won't need to bake the new subject after all…and this will be interesting…good luck." with that, Chell was dropped into the tube with Wheatley's scream for her echoing.

XXAPERTUREXX

Glados growled. They has searched over and over, but the girl and Wheatley had simply disappeared. There were no bodies, and only the busted portal device was left. The woman laughed lightly staring down at the trashed hunk. "So you thought you could escape, huh?" the doors opened behind her and a tired, groggy man walked in. His face was marked with sweat and a five o'clock shadow, as well as sunken worn eyes.

"I finished it…just like you asked…" he held up the newly redesigned portal device and handed it to her.

"Does it work right?" she held it up and looked down the line of sight and felt all _four_ of the buttons.

"We haven't actually tested it yet, ma'am, we're not really sure it's functional, yet." he explained, hoping she'd give him a break.

"Very well then…" she aimed it at the wall, "Let the testing begin…"

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><p>OH! end of part one ^_^ part two will be posted seperately I might post the 'epilogue' as a next chapter here...buuuut...not really sure lol ^_^ anyways...what did you all think?<p>

~Lady Pyrien

Thank you Coincidencless for the opera turret auditions idea ^_^

Thank you so much to everyone who read, favorited, alerted and reviewed. Things like that mean the world to me!

and remember the angrality poll is still open, at least until the epilogue is up.


	9. Epilogue

little epilogue / preview for some of what's to come in part two ^_^

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><p>Chell growled, shooting through the glass tube. What ever happened to 'you help me stop him, and I let you go'? the girl sighed. Escape would be near impossible now with GLaDOS onto every little possible way to take her down. There was no way the corrupted core room would be accessible as well at the neurotoxin room or the turret control center. The only way out was for GLaDOS to let them out, and seriously, if it hadn't happened already, what were the chances of that?<p>

The end neared and Chell landed in a small room with a thud. If there was anything the girl treasured as much as her life, it was her boots. They kept her out of all kinds of dangers and she probably would have been dead twenty times over if it hadn't been for them. Inside the room was a portal device sitting on a pedestal. The test subject approached it and smiled. She picked it up and ran her fingers gently over the three buttons. She shot a test orange portal and a test blue portal. They were linked just fine.

"You will begin a short set of human cooperative tests. If you proceed through the door and into the elevator, testing can begin." GLaDOS chuckled, "You'll love your c-op partner…she talks and talks and talks…completely opposite of you..."

Chell rolled her eyes and walked into the elevator, which began its descent.

"Oh, I almost forgot…remember when we cleared the air before? Is there anything you'd like to say to me?" her voice chimed, "Anything at all? Here I'll stop the elevator. Anything? Well, take your time…I'll be here during the whole next test…" Chell almost laughed aloud as the elevator kept moving. It almost sounded as if GLaDOS was really hurt by not getting an apology…

'Wait…is she?' Chell shook her head and waited, but the elevator stopped and a device set was dropped in front of her. There was a small eye piece as well as a glove. The glove wouldn't really count as one since it was actually just a band that went around her palm and a black slip with a few electrical bits inside, that went over her pointer finger. She fitted them on and looked through the orange glass that was fitted over her eyes. It was really odd, but cool.

The elevator continued until it stopped again in front of another tube and a wall with animal picture on it.

"One moment, You're partner will be here shortly." Chell leaned against the glass and looked to wards the animals. Suddenly a blue circle with an arrow pointed out a little rabbit and a loud voice screeched in her ear.

"It's a bunny! So cute!" Chell gripped her ear and glared at the little camera, before managing to turn do the volume. Her ear would ringing for days.

"Good, but before you start learning to use the Aperture Science Ping Tool, I'd like you to wave to your cooperative partner."

Chell glanced across the way and felt her heart stop. The blonde girl laughed happily waving, "Chell! I just knew I would see you here soon! It's actually been quite lonely, except for that voice that led me here! Oh, I see you have a portal device, too! Aren't they the coolest things ever? I knew you would like it! Oh, I've missed you, Chell!"

The girl stared back at Mel, her world seemingly slowing to a halt. Her head felt dizzy and black danced in the corners of her vision before her brain decided she couldn't handle this surprise. She collapsed on the elevator floor, her world spinning into utter darkness.

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><p>It's been wonderful writing these last four chapter of this story, which honestly were all done in one night XD I just spent the next few day editing and uploading on schedule!<p>

ON another note, I'm entering NaNoWriMo '11 ^_^ yays! so updates may become slow or non existent, especially come november when i actually sit down to write the novel XD

a special thank you to all my wonderful readers and reviewers! You guys made writing this part of the story special! I hope to continue seeing you in part two: Shattered. ^_^

~lady Pyrien


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